Elisabeth leads Exclaimer’s global brand narrative, thought leadership, and research-led storytelling. With over 15 years’ experience in PR and B2B technology marketing, she is known for turning complex ideas into clear, compelling communications that resonate with global audiences.
We're losing the messages that matter most
Some messages we would give anything to keep. Too often, they're the ones that disappear.
Think for a moment about the message you would be most upset to lose. A last note from someone who is gone. A photo thread from a group chat. The email that changed the shape of your life. Most of us have one, and a striking number of us have already lost it.
New research into how 2,000 adults across the UK and US communicate found that 18% have lost an important message forever. And when we asked people to describe a message they had kept, or one they wished they still had, the answers were rarely about work:
“A message from a family member who later passed away. I wanted to keep hold of that message but it disappeared.”
— UK survey respondent, 2026
Key findings
18% have lost an important message for good, to a deleted thread, a closed account, or a change of device
22% have missed something important because it arrived on a platform they rarely check
48% have kept a message specifically so they could return to it later
38% have chosen email over another platform precisely to keep a permanent record
The messages we can't get back
The messages people grieve losing are almost never trivial.
Most of our communication now lives across apps built to be fast and disposable, not to last. Chats move quickly, threads get cleared, accounts lapse, and a new phone quietly leaves the old conversations behind. Alongside the everyday chatter that no one misses, something irreplaceable often goes too. And a message doesn't have to be deleted to be lost: 22% of people have missed something important simply because it arrived on a platform they rarely open.
“I wish I still had a family group chat, which had messages from family members who are no longer here. When I changed phones, it didn't transfer over.”
— UK survey respondent, 2026
The theme ran through answer after answer. Not lost invoices or forgotten passwords, but the last words of people no longer here.
“It was a message from my dad about his illness. He said everything he needed to say.”
— UK survey respondent, 2026
Why the things that matter go by email
When a message really counts, people make a more deliberate choice.
The research points to a quiet habit. When something is important enough that losing it is unthinkable, people move it somewhere they trust to still be there. 48% have kept a message specifically so they could come back to it later, and 38% have chosen email over another platform precisely because they wanted a lasting record. The offer letter, the diagnosis, the note you know you’ll want to read again years from now: these tend to travel by email. Not because it’s the fastest channel, but because it feels like the one that endures.
“An email offering me my dream job.”
— UK survey respondent, 2026
The generation losing the most
The people most fluent in digital life are losing the most of it.
The loss is not spread evenly. Gen Z is the most likely of any generation to have lost an important message, at 29%, against 12% of Boomers. The generation that lives across the widest spread of apps, and keeps the least in any one durable place, pays the highest price when a thread is cleared or a device is swapped. The tools that make everyday communication effortless are also the ones that let the moments worth keeping slip away.
What we keep says a lot about us
We rarely think about where our messages live until the one we needed is gone.
The things people most want to hold on to are almost never the things a fast, disposable channel was built to protect. That gap, between how we communicate day to day and what we most want to keep, is one of the clearest threads running through this research. It’s a snapshot of what we save, what we lose, and where we still turn when a message truly matters.
This blog is part of When it matters: How people really communicate, a report based on a survey of 2,000 adults in the UK and US conducted by OnePoll in May and June 2026. Read the full report.
