Right now, when you swipe to the right, all it does is reveal a trash icon. Then you have to tap the trash icon to actually delete anything.

Why not instead make it so where you can swipe and the swipe alone deletes the message. Reduce the tolerance of the wipe so users have to purposely delete the message - like swipe half the screen width, for example.

Then, to avoid accidental deletions, add an "undo" prompt that immediately pops up after deleting and stays visible for a full 5 seconds. This way the user can quickly tap "undo" and the message remains where it was.