Have you mistakenly dropped a nude in the family group chat meant for your boo? Have no fear. WhatsApp is giving you some extra time to delete it.
On Monday, the company announced that users will now be given a little over two days to delete messages sent accidentally.
The original deletion period was one hour. To take advantage of this new feature, all users involved in the conversation must be updated to the app’s most recent version.
Once updated, open up the WhatsApp group or individual chat where you sent the message. Tap and hold the content you want permanently gone, press “Delete,” and then select either “Delete for everyone” or “Delete for me.” This must be done within the two days and 12-hour period, or else the unwanted messages will remain where they are.
Many have slammed the feature as a way to manipulate conversations, while others find it extremely useful when needing to correct mistakes.
Nevertheless, WhatsApp is getting ahead of the text-unsend element, which has been highly sought-after for iPhone users. Apple has announced that its unsend feature will be introduced with the iOS 16 beta update this fall. However, they are only allowing 15 minutes to remove unfavorable messages. Facebook and Instagram have both implemented unsend features in their DM’s. Users on IG are even notified when messages are unsent.
