Although today it may seem like a lie, not so long ago that WhatsApp did not allow us to delete messages sent in our chats. That is, if we sent a message to the wrong chat, all we had to do was swallow and write apologizing for the mistake. However, as time went by, we saw how the messaging app included the option of being able to delete messages from any chat in the event that we make a mistake or regret what we have sent in time. If you want to know how to delete messages on WhatsApp, all the options and aspects to take into account , we show a complete guide on how to do it below.
Surely on more than one occasion we have seen the message This message has been deleted in some of the conversations with our contacts. This means that someone has sent something but later deleted it. The same happens if we are the ones who delete a message, since the same literal will appear in the chat.
Now, it is important to know that so that the person or people to whom we have sent the message cannot read it, we will have to delete it before they have read it. If we have sent the message in a group, some members may have read it and others not at the time we are ready to delete it. Therefore, if we want to delete WhatsApp messages, it is best that we do it as soon as possible.
Time to delete a WhatsApp message
At first, when the messaging app incorporated the function that allows you to delete WhatsApp messages, a maximum of 7 minutes was established to be able to delete the message. That is, if we proceeded to delete it before the first 7 minutes after sending it, we could delete it without any problem. Now, if we tried after that time, then it was no longer possible to delete the WhatsApp message.
Luckily, later those of Mark Zuckerberg decided to extend that time and today it is established at approximately one hour and 8 minutes. It is not as much as what Telegram offers us, but the truth is that it offers us something more freedom than when it was only 7 minutes.
However, if we want to delete a message sent to one of our contacts and that has not yet been read, but it has been more than an hour and 8 minutes since we sent it, we can try to delete it in the following way . We activate the airplane mode in our terminal, we enter the phone settings, we change the clock time to set it in a moment shortly after having sent the message, we deactivate the airplane mode and we proceed to delete the WhatsApp message.
Delete WhatsApp messages in a chat or group
It is possible to delete WhatsApp messages from an individual chat or from a group, but in addition, we can also delete a message for ourselves or for everyone, something that we can decide when we have to delete it.
Delete messages for me
The famous messaging application allows us to delete messages that we have sent or received on our phone and that this does not affect the chats of our contacts. That is, we can delete messages from a chat so that they disappear from the screen of our phone and that this does not affect the chats of our contacts. The messages will be deleted from our screen but will continue to appear in the chat of our contact where we have deleted it.
To do this, all we have to do is:
- We open WhatsApp.
- We go to the chat in which we want to delete the message.
- We keep pressing the message that we want to delete until it is selected .
- We tap on the trash icon that appears in the top bar of the app.
- We select the Delete option for me that is shown in the window that is shown to us.
We can also select several messages from the same chat by pressing and holding on each one of them to delete several WhatsApp messages at once. These messages will disappear from our screen, showing the literal ” This message was deleted “, but they will remain visible on the screen of the person with whom we have open that chat.
Delete messages for everyone
Both in individual chats and in groups we can delete WhatsApp messages and affect the chats of the rest of the participants. Therefore, it is what we will have to do to delete a message that we have sent by mistake. For it:
- We open WhatsApp.
- We go to the chat or group in which we want to delete the message.
- We keep pressing the message that we want to delete until it is selected .
- We tap on the trash icon that appears in the top bar of the app.
- We select the Delete option for all that is shown in the window that is shown to us.
- Both on our phone and on the other participants in the chat or group, the literal “ This message was deleted ” will appear and they will no longer be able to see the original message.
It is important to know that the recipients of the deleted message have been able to see the content of the message before we proceed with its elimination. If when we select the message we show the info, we can see if there is someone who has already read it. If it has not yet been read by our recipient or recipients, then none of them will be able to see it once we have deleted it.
If any of the recipients have an iPhone and what we have sent in the message is a photo, it may be that even after deleting the WhatsApp messages, those contacts have the photo saved on their device.
Delete all messages from a chat at once
If what we want is to delete all the messages from a chat in question, we must know that the messaging app also allows us to do so. It is a function that has been available in WhatsApp for a long time and is designed to delete all messages from a chat . Therefore, it is not an action that influences the chats of our contacts, since they will be deleted only on our device.
To delete WhatsApp messages from a chat in question, all we have to do is:
- We open WhatsApp.
- We go to the chat where we want to delete all messages.
- We tap on the menu button .
- Click on the More option .
- We select the option Empty chat.
- We mark or uncheck the boxes Delete highlighted messages and Delete the files of this chat.
- Click on Empty .
- WhatsApp messages from that chat will automatically be deleted.
Soon you won’t have to erase
You may not have to manually delete WhatsApp messages very soon. If you wonder why, the answer is that the instant messaging application is already testing a new feature in the beta version of its Android app that allows the photos and videos sent to self-destruct when the interlocutor has seen them.
This feature first appeared in version 2.20.201.1. of the application and is called “Expiring Media”. The option is within another that takes even longer to test and that will allow messages in individual chats to delete themselves after a predetermined time. As shown by captures of the betas reported by some blogs specialized in reverse engineering such as WABetaInfo, the available options that WhatsApp will give us to choose from so that the messages are deleted by themselves are: an hour, a day, a week, a month and a year . At the moment it is not known when this function will be made official although since it is in beta and has been testing for a long time, it should not take too long.
