WhatsApp has become the standard form of communication for many of us in this modern, digital age. Millions of smartphone users around the world now opt for WhatsApp over regular text messaging, as it is a quick and easy way of communicating with other users without cost.
The app boasts over 2bn users every month, according to market and consumer data company Statista – this is more than twice the amount of Facebook Messenger users. Since its launch, WhatsApp has been updated to allow a whole host of features.
One such feature was the ‘Delete’ function, which was added in 2017 to allow users to delete messages – including media such as photos and videos – from their conversations. Messages can also be deleted from group conversations.
Perhaps you regret sending a message, or have since thought of a better way to say what you mean. Whatever the reason, here, we tell you what happens when you delete a message on WhatsApp.
Before you delete a message, you first want to check its status – in other words, if it has been read by the recipient. You can easily tell this by the colour of the ticks that appear beside a message.
A single grey tick means the message is yet to be delivered and two grey ticks means a message has been delivered but not been read by the recipient. Two blue ticks means the recipient has received and read the message.
You can delete a message before and after it has been received and read, and there are two ways it can be deleted. Depending which option you choose, the other user may see that you have done so.
To delete a WhatsApp message, simply tap and hold the message you wish to delete. For iPhone and iPad users, this will give you a pop-up menu with various options including ‘Forward’, ‘Copy’ and ‘Delete’.
On Android devices, you will see a bin icon near the top of the screen. Once you have tapped ‘Delete’ on iPhone or iPad, or the bin icon on Android, a pop-up menu will present you with two options to delete a message.
You can choose either ‘Delete for Me’ or ‘Delete for Everyone’. If you choose ‘Delete for Me’, the message will be removed from the conversation, but only on your side.
The recipient – or other members of the group conversation – will still be able to see it. Choosing ‘Delete for Everyone’ will delete the message for everyone in the conversation. For all users, the deleted message will be replaced with text that says ‘You deleted this message’.
Therefore all users in the conversation will see that a message has been deleted, but they will not be able to read what it said. The time the message was originally sent will also still be present by the message.
If deleting a message on WhatsApp is not enough, you can also choose to block a user from contacting you or leave a group conversation altogether.
READ NEXT:
- Dad accused of murdering baby daughter denies lying to police and insists 'I did not cause these horrible injuries to my little girl'
- Woman took teenage son on revenge mission against her mum after complaining she had been frozen out of family will
- Man went to the doctor with sporadic back pain and gets horrifying diagnosis
- Manchester's lost burger bar loved as much for its cocktails 'paved the way for McDonald's'
- Student, 19, at centre of Fallowfield murder investigation named as family pays tribute to 'bubbly, lively, beautiful boy'
