WhatsApp Turns-On 'Unsend' Feature to Recall Sent Messages
Source: thenextweb.com, http://gadgets.ndtv.com/
Following months of preparation, WhatsApp has finally added the ability to delete those embarrassing messages you sent by mistake before your contact has had a chance to read them. The best part is that the feature will be available for Android, iOS and Windows Phone users.
The annoying thing is that, despite updating its FAQ page to notify users about the new functionality, it seems the Facebook-owned messenger has not yet rolled out the new feature to all users. So you ought to think twice before you start dropping text-bombs with reckless abandon.
TNW staffers have so far been unable to use this functionality (with the latest version of WhatsApp). But given that it is already announced on the official FAQ page, it shouldn’t take too long before it is enabled for all users across the board.
The new feature will be called ‘Delete for everyone’ and will be available to use for both messages sent to group and individual chats.
The company says that all purged texts will be replaced with a ‘This message was deleted’ notice.
Users can follow these steps to check whether ‘Delete for everyone’ has landed on their phone:
Go to WhatsApp and open any chat thread with a message you wish to recall.
Tap and hold on the message in question. The extended options should show up at the top of your screen. Please note that you can optionally select more than one messages to delete multiple texts at the same time.
Once you’ve settled on the messages you want gone, tap the Delete (thrash bin icon) and select the ‘Delete for everyone’ option.
Assuming everything goes smoothly, deleted messages will disappear from both the chat threads as well as the notification center.
It adds that the rollout is slow and it may take some time. As we already mentioned, the feature will only work for both the parties if the sender and recipient are using the latest WhatsApp version. The feature is said to work for all kinds of messages on the most widely used instant messaging app. The report says it will work for all texts, images, videos, GIFs, voice messages, contact, files, location, quoted message, and status replies on WhatsApp.
It also only works within 7 minutes of sending the message - after that, the message can't be recalled. Deleted messages will be replaced by "This message was deleted for everyone." Based on the initial report, the sent message will be deleted from the chat page as well as from the notifications pane. For those unaware, the recall feature is already available in other popular chat apps like Telegram, Viber, and others, and WhatsApp is finally looking to make it available to its billion daily active users as well.
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