Finally here…
They’ve teased it for a while, but it seems like the day of deleting messages on WhatsApp is finally among us.
The app’s current delete button is nearly useless, as it only deletes messages on the sender’s side of the conversation, but that looks to be changing in the latest update.
In a post in the frequently asked questions on their site, WhatsApp wrote:
“Deleting messages for everyone allows you to delete 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.
“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.
“You can only delete messages for everyone for up to seven minutes after sending. Once seven minutes have passed, there is no way to delete messages for everyone.”
While it hasn’t been rolled out everywhere just yet, the fact that it’s included on the FAQs page does suggest that it will become available for everyone in the near future.
Users can follow these steps to check whether ‘Delete for everyone’ is available on their phone:
- Go to WhatsApp and open any chat thread with a message you wish to recall.
- Tap and hold on the message in question. The extended options should show up at the top of your screen.
- Once you’ve settled on the messages you want gone, tap the Delete and select the ‘Delete for everyone’ option.
