diff --git a/priv/repo/migrations/20240210000000_drop_chat_tables.exs b/priv/repo/migrations/20240210000000_drop_chat_tables.exs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f83524e4d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/priv/repo/migrations/20240210000000_drop_chat_tables.exs
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+defmodule Pleroma.Repo.Migrations.DropChatTables do
+  use Ecto.Migration
+
+  def up do
+    # Automatically drops associated indices and constraints
+    drop table(:chat_message_references)
+    drop table(:chats)
+  end
+
+  def down do
+    # Ecto's default primary key is bigserial, thus configure manually
+    create table(:chats, primary_key: false) do
+      add(:id, :uuid, primary_key: true, autogenerated: true)
+
+      add(
+        :user_id,
+        references(:users, type: :uuid, on_delete: :delete_all)
+        # yes, this was nullable
+      )
+
+      add(
+        :recipient,
+        references(:users, column: :ap_id, type: :string, on_delete: :delete_all)
+        # yes, this was nullable
+      )
+
+      timestamps()
+    end
+
+    create(index(:chats, [:user_id, :recipient], unique: true))
+
+    create table(:chat_message_references, primary_key: false) do
+      add(:id, :uuid, primary_key: true, autogenerated: true)
+      add(:chat_id, references(:chats, type: :uuid, on_delete: :delete_all), null: false)
+      add(:object_id, references(:objects, on_delete: :delete_all), null: false)
+      add(:unread, :boolean, default: true, null: false)
+      timestamps()
+    end
+
+    create(index(:chat_message_references, [:chat_id, "id desc"]))
+    create(unique_index(:chat_message_references, [:object_id, :chat_id]))
+
+    create(
+      index(:chat_message_references, [:chat_id],
+        where: "unread = true",
+        name: "unread_messages_count_index"
+      )
+    )
+  end
+end
diff --git a/test/mix/tasks/pleroma/database_test.exs b/test/mix/tasks/pleroma/database_test.exs
index 40c5fd402..97fa830ff 100644
--- a/test/mix/tasks/pleroma/database_test.exs
+++ b/test/mix/tasks/pleroma/database_test.exs
@@ -371,8 +371,6 @@ test "We don't have unexpected tables which may contain objects that are referen
                ["apps"],
                ["backups"],
                ["bookmarks"],
-               ["chat_message_references"],
-               ["chats"],
                ["config"],
                ["conversation_participation_recipient_ships"],
                ["conversation_participations"],