A short message processing method and device are provided. The method includes: starting a delay to deletion after receiving a short message deletion request from a user; during the delay to deletion, judging whether the user reviews the short message in a short message list; if so, canceling the short message deletion operation; if not, completely deleting the short message after the delay to deletion expires. By the embodiments of the present invention, the problem that the operation effect of recovering mistakenly-deleted short message by a third party software in the prior art is not ideal is solved. Besides, the operations are easier, there is no risk of leaking private data of users, short message recovery is ensured, and customized setting of users can be achieved.