diff --git a/src/llamafactory/data/aligner.py b/src/llamafactory/data/aligner.py
index 82bbfafb2..a87dfdb7e 100644
--- a/src/llamafactory/data/aligner.py
+++ b/src/llamafactory/data/aligner.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Any, Dict, List, Optional, Sequence, Union
 
 from ..extras import logging
-from .data_utils import Role
+from .data_utils import Role, merge_messages
 
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ def convert_sharegpt(
     odd_tags = (dataset_attr.user_tag, dataset_attr.observation_tag)
     even_tags = (dataset_attr.assistant_tag, dataset_attr.function_tag)
     accept_tags = (odd_tags, even_tags)
-    messages = example[dataset_attr.messages]
+    messages = merge_messages(example[dataset_attr.messages], dataset_attr)
     if (
         dataset_attr.system_tag
         and len(messages) != 0
diff --git a/src/llamafactory/data/data_utils.py b/src/llamafactory/data/data_utils.py
index cbce026c8..229d2345f 100644
--- a/src/llamafactory/data/data_utils.py
+++ b/src/llamafactory/data/data_utils.py
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@
 
 from datasets import DatasetDict, concatenate_datasets, interleave_datasets
 
+from .parser import DatasetAttr
+
 from ..extras import logging
 
 
@@ -90,3 +92,29 @@ def split_dataset(
         val_size = int(data_args.val_size) if data_args.val_size > 1 else data_args.val_size
         dataset = dataset.train_test_split(test_size=val_size, seed=seed)
         return DatasetDict({"train": dataset["train"], "validation": dataset["test"]})
+
+
+def merge_messages(messages: Sequence[Dict[str, str]], dataset_attr: "DatasetAttr") -> List[Dict[str, str]]:
+    # merge obversation messages
+    new_messages = []
+    waiting_message = []
+
+    def append_waiting_message():
+        if len(waiting_message) == 1:
+            new_messages.append(waiting_message[0])
+        else:
+            assert waiting_message[0]["role"] == dataset_attr.observation_tag
+            new_messages.append(
+                {"role": dataset_attr.observation_tag, "content": [m["content"] for m in waiting_message]}
+            )
+
+    for message in messages:
+        if len(waiting_message) > 0 and message["role"] != waiting_message[-1]["role"]:
+            append_waiting_message()
+            waiting_message = []
+        waiting_message.append(message)
+
+    if len(waiting_message) > 0:
+        append_waiting_message()
+
+    return new_messages
diff --git a/src/llamafactory/data/template.py b/src/llamafactory/data/template.py
index 2127f9577..bd7642dd4 100644
--- a/src/llamafactory/data/template.py
+++ b/src/llamafactory/data/template.py
@@ -104,7 +104,6 @@ def _encode(
         """
         system = system or self.default_system
         encoded_messages = []
-        messages = self.merge_messages(messages)
         for i, message in enumerate(messages):
             elements = []
 
@@ -157,32 +156,6 @@ def _convert_elements_to_ids(self, tokenizer: "PreTrainedTokenizer", elements: "
 
         return token_ids
 
-    @staticmethod
-    def merge_messages(messages: Sequence[Dict[str, str]]) -> List[Dict[str, str]]:
-        # merge obversation messages
-        new_messages = []
-        waiting_message = []
-
-        def append_waiting_message():
-            if len(waiting_message) == 1:
-                new_messages.append(waiting_message[0])
-            else:
-                assert waiting_message[0]["role"] == Role.OBSERVATION.value
-                new_messages.append(
-                    {"role": Role.OBSERVATION.value, "content": [m["content"] for m in waiting_message]}
-                )
-        for message in messages:
-            if len(waiting_message) > 0 and message["role"] != waiting_message[-1]["role"]:
-                append_waiting_message()
-                waiting_message = []
-            waiting_message.append(message)
-
-        if len(waiting_message) > 0:
-            append_waiting_message()
-
-        return new_messages
-
-
 @dataclass
 class Llama2Template(Template):
     @override
@@ -200,7 +173,6 @@ def _encode(
         """
         system = system or self.default_system
         encoded_messages = []
-        messages = self.merge_messages(messages)
         for i, message in enumerate(messages):
             elements = []