You probably have read about WhatsApp ’s latest feature that will now allow you to delete a message sent by mistake. The company has been testing the feature for the most part of this year before it finally decided to roll it out last week.
So how does this feature work? Well, you will be able to delete messages up to seven minutes after you sent them. The messages will completely disappear from conversations and even group chats.
Note that you can delete messages both for everyone or for yourself. Deleting messages for everyone basically means deleting specific messages you have sent to either a group or an individual chat. This is particularly useful if you sent a message to the wrong chat or if the message you sent contains a mistake. Deleting messages for yourself, on the other hand, is just getting rid of the copy of the messages you have sent or received from your phone. This will however not have any effect on your recipients’ chat as they will still be able to see the messages in their chat screen.
Here is how you can delete the messages:
Deleting messages for everyone
- Open WhatsApp and go to the chat containing the message you wish to delete.
- Tap and hold the message > choose Delete from the menu. Optionally, select more messages to delete multiple messages at once.
- Tap Delete > Delete for Everyone.
Messages you successfully delete for everyone will be replaced with “This message was deleted” in your recipients’ chats. Similarly, if you see “This message was deleted” in a chat, it means that the sender deleted their message for everyone.
Deleting messages for yourself
- Open WhatsApp and go to the chat containing the message you wish to delete.
- Tap and hold the message > choose Delete from the menu. Optionally, select more messages to delete multiple messages at once.
- Tap Delete > Delete for Me.
Remember for messages to be successfully deleted for everyone, both you and your recipient must be using the latest version of WhatsApp both for Android, iPhone or Windows phone.
