WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps out in the wild. With ease of use, no gimmicks and straightforward features, it's able to win many people's hearts.
After months of preparation, the company finally allows users to delete sent messages, or messages that were sent by mistake, before their contacts have the chance to read them. So if you've ever sent a WhatsApp message you quickly regretted, this feature should come in handy.
The feature has two options when it comes to deleting messages.
The first is 'Delete for Everyone' and the second is just 'Delete for Me'. Both can be applied on group and individual chats.
For the first one, as the name suggests, users can delete a message if the message has been sent to many or one receiver. After the message has been deleted, recipient(s) will get a message saying "This message was deleted" in their chat.
Similarly, if someone has deleted the message, the user will be notified of the same.
To delete a message, the process is straightforward.
Just like how users can usually delete messages, they just need to open any chat thread with the message they wish to recall, tap and hold on the message they want to delete to open an extended option that will allow them to remove the said message.
Users can optionally select more than one messages to delete multiple messages at the same time.
After selecting the message(s), users just need to tap the delete (the trash bin icon). If everything goes well, the message(s) will disappear from both the chat thread and also the notification center.
However, WhatsApp does't say that if a deletion process isn't successful, the sender will be notified. What's more, the message saying that "This message was deleted" is clearly showing that deleting messages won't be as stealthy as people might have hoped. Recipient will know that the sender somehow had something to hide.
Also, the much awaited feature however, only allows users to delete a message within seven minutes of sending the message. Another thing is that, in order to successfully delete a message, both the sender and the recipient must be using the WhatsApp version that has the feature.
Failing to do so means that the message is there to stay.
WhatsApp is releasing the feature gradually to users using Android, iOS and Windows Phone.
While this feature certainly has limits, it can still be incredibly useful for those people who type faster than their brains.