WhatsApp has become one of the most popular messaging apps, with over 2 billion users worldwide. It offers end-to-end encryption for messages, allowing you to have private conversations. However, sometimes you may send a message and later regret it or want to delete it for privacy reasons. Here’s how you can delete a message on WhatsApp after it has already been sent.
Delete Message for Yourself
If you want to delete a message just for yourself, here are the steps:
- Open the WhatsApp chat where you sent the message.
- Long press on the message you want to delete.
- This will open up a menu – tap on ‘Delete’.
- Confirm that you want to delete the message by tapping ‘Delete for me’.
This will instantly delete the message from your chat. However, it will still be visible to the recipient. The message will show “This message was deleted” to the recipient.
Delete Message for Everyone
If you want to delete a message for both you and the recipient, here are the steps:
- Open the WhatsApp chat where you sent the message.
- Long press on the message you want to delete.
- Tap on ‘Delete’ from the menu.
- Now tap on ‘Delete for everyone’.
This will delete the message for both you and the recipient. However, there is a time limit to deleting messages for everyone.
Time Limit for Deleting Messages
WhatsApp only allows you to delete messages for everyone within a certain time limit:
| Platform | Deletion Time Limit |
|---|---|
| Android | 1 hour 8 minutes and 16 seconds |
| iOS | 1 hour 8 minutes and 16 seconds |
| Web/Desktop | 1 hour 8 minutes and 16 seconds |
This means if a message is older than the time limit, the ‘Delete for everyone’ option will not show up. You can only delete messages for yourself after the time limit.
Important Points
Here are some important points to note about deleting WhatsApp messages:
- The recipient may still see the message before it is deleted if they are quick enough.
- Deleting a message will not delete any forwards or quotes of that message made by the recipient.
- You cannot delete messages on someone else’s phone, only on your own device.
- Deleted messages may still show up in WhatsApp Web notification if the tab is left open.
- There are third party apps that can retrieve and restore deleted WhatsApp messages.
Delete Message on WhatsApp Web
WhatsApp Web allows you to use WhatsApp on your computer browser. Here are the steps to delete a message on WhatsApp Web:
- Open web.whatsapp.com and scan the QR code to link your account.
- In the chat window, right click on the message you want to delete.
- Click on ‘Delete’ and then confirm by clicking ‘Delete for me’ or ‘Delete for everyone’.
The same time limit for deleting messages applies on WhatsApp Web as well. You can only delete messages for everyone within 1 hour 8 minutes and 16 seconds.
Retrieve Deleted WhatsApp Messages
While WhatsApp does not have an official way to retrieve deleted messages, there are some methods you can try:
Restore from Backup
WhatsApp automatically takes backups everyday at 2 AM. You can restore deleted messages from a backup if it was created before the message was deleted. Here are the steps:
- Uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp.
- When prompted, restore from Google Drive backup during setup.
- Choose the latest backup before the message was deleted.
This will restore your chats from the backup and recover the deleted message.
Use Third Party Apps
There are apps like iMyFone D-Back and Dr.Fone that can help recover deleted WhatsApp messages from your phone’s storage. They scan your device to look for WhatsApp message backups that can be restored.
Retrieve from Notifications
If you are quick enough, you may be able to read a deleted message from your phone’s notifications panel before it disappears. But this is unreliable.
Recover from Google Drive Backup
Google Drive backups are not encrypted. So you can download and extract the msgstore.db.crypt12 file from the backup. This database file stores your deleted messages which can be viewed using a SQLite editor.
Conclusion
Deleting messages on WhatsApp is easy – just long press and tap delete. But the process differs for deleting a message just for yourself or for everyone. There is also a time limit to deleting messages for everyone. While WhatsApp doesn’t have an official way to retrieve deleted messages, there are some tricks you can try like using third party apps or extracting from Google Drive backup. But the most reliable way is simply being careful – think twice before hitting send or delete on WhatsApp.