WhatsApp has become one of the most popular messaging apps, with over 2 billion users worldwide. One of the key features of WhatsApp is the ability to delete sent messages, which can be useful if you sent something by mistake or that you later regret. But what are the limits to deleting WhatsApp messages? Let’s take a look at what you need to know.
How Long Do You Have to Delete a Message?
For both individual and group messages, WhatsApp gives you just over 1 hour to delete a message after it is sent. Specifically, you have 1 hour, 8 minutes and 16 seconds to delete a WhatsApp message after sending it, according to WhatsApp.
This time limit applies to all messages, whether it’s a text message, photo, video, GIF, message with emoji or any other type of WhatsApp message. If you surpass the 1 hour 8 minute time limit, the delete message option will no longer be available.
Why Is There a Time Limit?
WhatsApp implemented this time restriction to avoid abuse of the delete message feature. Without any time limit, users could delete messages long after sending them, which could potentially be used maliciously. However, with the 1 hour limit, you still have a reasonable amount of time to delete typos, accidental messages or things you regret sending soon after hitting send.
Does the Sender Get Notified When You Delete a Message?
When you delete a WhatsApp message you’ve sent, the recipient is notified that a message was deleted. A note appears saying “This message was deleted” where the deleted message previously was. However, the recipient is not able to see the content of the deleted message.
Having a notification that a message was deleted provides transparency to the recipient that something they previously received no longer exists. This prevents confusion if the recipient later looks back at the conversation and sees a gap where a message used to be.
Stopping Deletion Notifications
While you can’t prevent the notification from being sent, you can stop the recipient from seeing it. This is done by blocking the recipient right after deleting your message. Here are the steps:
- Delete your message within 1 hour 8 minutes
- Immediately go to the recipient’s chat and block them
- Now unblock the recipient
By briefly blocking the recipient immediately after deleting your message, the notification that you deleted the message will not appear when you unblock them. However, this doesn’t allow you to delete messages outside the time limit.
Can Recipients Delete Your Messages?
Yes, other WhatsApp users can delete the messages you send them in both individual and group chats. They have the same 1 hour 8 minute time limit to delete your messages after receiving them.
When someone deletes your message that they received, you will get a notification saying “This message was deleted” in place of your message.
There is no way to prevent other users from deleting the messages you send. The only exception is if you delete your message first, then the recipient can no longer delete that same message.
How to See Deleted Messages
While WhatsApp deletes messages from their servers after 30 days, there are still ways to see deleted messages if you previously viewed them and took action quickly. Here are two methods:
- Notification Log: On Android, quickly go to Settings > Notifications > Advanced Settings > Notification Log after viewing a message. You may be able to see the deleted message there.
- backups: If you regularly back up your WhatsApp messages locally or to Google Drive/iCloud, you may be able to find deleted messages in your backups, depending on when they were last saved.
Can You Delete Messages for Everyone?
Unlike many other messaging apps, WhatsApp does not currently allow you to delete messages for all recipients in a chat. When you delete a message, it is only deleted from your view of the chat and anyone else you sent it directly to.
For example, in a group chat if you delete a message, it will only be deleted for you and nobody else in the group. The message remains visible for all other group participants.
WhatsApp has avoided implementing a “delete for everyone” feature due to concerns over abuse of such a powerful deletion capability. There are currently no signs that the platform plans to add this option.
Workarounds
While not perfect, there are some workarounds to delete a message for everyone:
- Delete the message for yourself, then send a follow-up message encouraging everyone else to also delete your message and not spread it further.
- If it’s a group chat, politely ask the admin to delete your message for the whole group.
- Exit the group chat entirely so you no longer have access to view the message.
However, there is no guarantee others will comply with deleting the message you want removed. WhatsApp does not enable true deletion for all.
Is There a Limit to How Many Messages You Can Delete?
No, WhatsApp does not limit the number of messages you can delete. You are free to delete as many of your own messages as you want, as long as you do so within the 1 hour 8 minute limit after sending.
This applies to both individual and group chats. You can delete a single message or continuously delete messages one after the other in a conversation.
However, frequently deleting a high number of messages you’ve sent may look suspicious to recipients. While allowed, excessive self-deletion may undermine trust in a chat.
Coping With Accidental Spam
If you ever accidentally spam a chat by sending a message repeatedly, you can delete all of the duplicates without hitting a deletion limit. Here are some tips to quickly erase the spam:
- Delete the messages normally one by one by tapping and holding each.
- Select multiple messages at once to delete faster on mobile.
- On WhatsApp Web, hold shift while clicking to select a range of messages.
- If needed, delete and rejoin the chat or restart your phone to quickly select all.
Act swiftly within the time limit to remove all traces of the accidental spam.
What Happens When You Delete a Message?
When you delete a WhatsApp message, it is removed from your view of the chat on all devices where you are logged in. As mentioned above, other recipients in the chat will see a note that “This message was deleted.”
On WhatsApp’s servers, any messages that you delete are permanently deleted after 30 days. During this 30 day window, deleted messages may still be included if you make a new backup of your chats.
So after 30 days from being deleted, a WhatsApp message is fully erased from their servers and there is no way to retrieve it. However, deleted messages may persist in backups you’ve saved previously.
Media Messages
The same deletion timeframe applies to all WhatsApp messages, including text, photos, videos and other media. Media that you delete is removed from their servers in 30 days.
One thing to note is that if you delete a media message, while the message is deleted any media downloaded by the recipient will still be kept on their device storage. For privacy, it’s best not to send compromising media that can’t be taken back.
Can You Recover Deleted WhatsApp Messages?
Since WhatsApp erases deleted messages from their servers after 30 days, there is no way to recover deleted messages directly through WhatsApp after this period.
However, it is possible to retrieve deleted WhatsApp messages for up to 30 days after deletion using a few methods:
- Backups – Look for the deleted messages in your local WhatsApp backups or your Google Drive/iCloud backups, before they are overwritten with newer backups.
- Apps – Use third party apps like Dr.Fone that can recover deleted WhatsApp messages by scanning your device’s local data.
- iTunes/Finder – On iPhone, you may find deleted messages using iTunes backups on your computer. For Android, connect your phone to a computer and explore files.
The sooner you try to recover deleted messages, the higher your chances of retrieving them from backups and phone storage before they are permanently overwritten.
Preventing Message Loss
To make sure you don’t lose important WhatsApp messages:
- Frequently backup your chats locally or to the cloud.
- Export important chat history to other formats like PDF to preserve them.
- Use apps that can automatically record and archive your WhatsApp chats.
- Be careful about deleting messages unless truly necessary.
Does Deleting Messages Free Up Space?
Deleting WhatsApp messages can help free up storage space on your phone, but only to a limited extent. The media contained in messages contributes most to WhatsApp’s storage usage. Text messages alone take up very little space.
When you delete a message with photos, videos or other media, it will delete that media from your phone’s local WhatsApp media storage and free up space. Media sent in WhatsApp is stored in your phone’s internal storage or SD card.
However, many other copies of your WhatsApp media files likely exist. Any media you sent will still be stored by all the recipients you sent it to. Media will also persist in your phone’s general gallery storage and any chat backups until deleted.
More Effective Ways to Free Up Space
To really free up space used by WhatsApp, it’s better to:
- Delete entire chats, especially big group chats
- Clear your general phone gallery deleting unnecessary media
- Delete old local and cloud WhatsApp backups
- Transfer WhatsApp media to a computer then delete from phone
Deleting old chats and media you no longer need gets rid of it in all locations, freeing up the most space across your phone and storage.
WhatsApp Message Deletion Conclusion
In summary, here are some key points to keep in mind about deleting WhatsApp messages:
- You only have 1 hour, 8 minutes and 16 seconds to delete a sent message.
- Recipients are notified when you delete a message.
- You can’t delete messages for everyone, only for yourself.
- There is no limit to how many of your own messages you can delete.
- Deleted messages are permanently erased from WhatsApp’s servers in 30 days.
- You may be able to recover recently deleted messages from backups.
- Media sent in deleted messages may still be kept by recipients.
Understanding WhatsApp’s deletion limits and notifications can help you avoid unwanted situations where sensitive chats persist even if you deleted your copy. When needed, act swiftly within the time limit to delete regrettable messages.