Delete your messages in Telegram chats before a specific date (with deletion from another person's history)

wipergram.py

# This script deletes your own messages older than a cutoff date in a 1:1 chat
# They're also deleted from another person's history

# Create an app at https://my.telegram.org
# Save the `api_id` and `api_hash` from there

# Launching:
    # python3 -m venv pyrogram_env
    # source pyrogram_env/bin/activate
    # pip install pyrogram tgcrypto
    # python wipergram.py

# On first run it asks for the phone number (with `+`)
# Then the `.session` file stores your login and will be reused on future runs

from pyrogram import Client
from datetime import datetime, timedelta
import logging
import time

# Replace with your values
api_id = YOUR_APP_ID
api_hash = "YOUR_API_HASH"
target_chat = "PERSON_USERNAME"  # username without `@` or numeric ID
cutoff_date = datetime(2023, 12, 31)  # delete messages older than this

logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO, format="%(asctime)s - %(message)s")

app = Client("my_account", api_id=api_id, api_hash=api_hash)


with app:
    count = 0
    skipped = 0
    total = 0
    
    # this may take a while because Telegram API can't jump to a specific date
    # so the script walks backwards through all the messages
    for msg in app.get_chat_history(target_chat):
        total += 1
        if total % 100 == 0:
            logging.info(f"Traversing: currently at msg {msg.id} dated {msg.date}")

        if msg.date >= cutoff_date:
            continue  # too new, skip

        if msg.from_user and msg.from_user.is_self and not msg.service:
            try:
                preview = (msg.text or msg.caption or "[media]").replace('\n', ' ')[:60]
                app.delete_messages(target_chat, msg.id, revoke=True)
                logging.info(f"Deleted msg {msg.id} @ {msg.date}: '{preview}'")
                count += 1
                time.sleep(0.2) # throttling deletions, so Telegram's API is happy
            except Exception as e:
                logging.error(f"Failed to delete msg {msg.id}: {e}")
        else:
            skipped += 1

    logging.info(f"Done. Deleted: {count}, Skipped: {skipped}, Traversed: {total}")