It’s a feature that has been talked about and was requested by many on several forums for quite some time now and it’s finally here. You can now delete or recall sent WhatsApp messages even after then have been
read by the recipient.
Yes, you read that right. You can send a message, have the recipient read it, decide you do not want that message on your device AND the recipient’s device and simple delete it on both devices without having access to theirs. “What, I threatened you on WhatApp, do you have proof of that conversation?” This is the new dimension we have just entered into in WhatsApp messaging.
I guess now will be as good a time as ever to learn to take screenshots on your device, especially when you think the message may be deleted or recalled by the sender. I do hope good digital citizenship will prevail as this feature rolls out to all WhatsApp users in the coming days.
So how do you get the feature and is there any thing you should be aware of?
- Simply update your WhatsApp to the latest version which is currently 2.17.401. You can always grab the latest apk from our friends over on ApkMirror.
- Once you have the 2.17.401 installed, send a message to one of your contacts.
- It’s important to note here that there is a window of time in which you will be allowed to recall the message. Once that time window closes, you will be able to delete the message from your device, but not from the recipient’s. In my tests the time window is about 10 minutes even though WhatsApp says 7.
- To delete the sent message, long-press on the message >> select trash can icon in the top right >> choose DELETE FOR EVERYONE from the pop-up menu. This option will delete the message and sent media from both you device and the recipient(s)’s.
- Once the deletion or recall was successful you will see a message saying “You deleted this message“. The recipient will see “This message was deleted“.
WARNING: The recipient will be alerted that a message was deleted/recalled and this feature does not prevent them from taking screenshot of the message before you made it disappear.