You only have 7 minutes to delete that WhatsApp message, yes just 7!

Last month Techzim wrote about the ‘Delete for all’ feature being available on WhatsApp but only on the Beta version. Well, now it’s available for everyone!

I must admit that this is not necessarily news especially for those who are ‘always up to speed’ with these things because the update has been available for a couple days now. However, to the rest of us, allow me to apologise for delaying with such awesome news.

So what is this WhatsApp Delete for all feature?

Remember that time when you sent a text on WhatsApp and regretted it so much that you felt like swallowing the phone? (bad joke, I know but I just couldn’t help it). Anyway, yes, now instead of banging it or doing something that might send you off to a hospital, you can simply delete it. Not only will it disappear from your chat but also from the person you sent it to. And if you sent it to a group? Well, no worries either because the feature also applies to messages sent in groups. However, you’d need to Pray and hope that none of the group members still uses a Symbian phone because it just won’t delete on a Symbian phone. Symbian phone privileges huh? No FOMO for them at least.

So in as much as this is all good news and all, there’s still a catch. You’d need to immediately realise that you’ve sent the wrong message to the right person (or the right message to the wrong person) or at least notice within 7 minutes. Otherwise, failure to comply, that is deleting the message within 7 minutes means hapanahapana (there’s no helping you then).

Also, it’s good to note that the feature doesn’t apply to text messages only but for photos, videos, contacts, and basically any other type of message. It’s funny that just today someone sent ‘the wrong’ photo to a group that I’m in and that photo is the type that will definitely traumatise a number of people for a very long time; but had they known of this feature earlier, I’m sure they would have immediately deleted it and the damage would have been a whole lot less. Mmmhh now I see why I should have written this post earlier.

Nevertheless, to use the Delete For All feature you’d need to first update your WhatsApp into the latest version (i.e version 2.17.395). And to delete a message, you need to long press on the message you want to get rid of and tap on the delete option. Thereafter, select delete for all (which means delete the message from every other recipient’s device) versus ‘delete for me’ which just deletes the message from your device.

However, there will always be evidence that you sent and deleted something since WhatsApp prefers to have snitchy tendencies. A message that says “This message has been deleted” will appear in place of the deleted message. But then again, it will someday work in your favour when you need the evidence that some texts are actually missing.

Otherwise, all in all, pretty cool feature ain’t it?