WhatsApp launched the ‘Delete for Everyone’ feature a few years back to let users delete the messages they sent by mistake. This feature will delete the message that was sent mistakenly or to a wrong contact or group. However, it will leave the caption ‘This message was deleted’. Moreover, the instant messaging platform has a specific time restriction to delete the message on both sides.
Now, it looks like WhatsApp is all set to remove this time limit. As per speculation, WhatsApp is reportedly working on removing this time limit it has imposed on the feature and will let users delete messages for a longer period than the previous limit.
WhatsApp Delete For Everyone Time Limit
A recent report by the popular feature leaker WABetaInfo has shared a screenshot that shows the familiar WhatsApp for Android interface and a dialog box asking a user to choose between delete the message for themselves or everyone in a chat. What’s notable is that the message was sent three months back and it shows the date August 23. This is way beyond the current time limit that is imposed by WhatsApp when using the ‘Delete for Everyone’ feature.
For now, the Facebook-owned instant messaging app lets users delete messages for all users for up to 4096 seconds, which is a little over one hour after it is sent. The timer was increased from the initial seven-minute window when the feature was rolled out in 2017. However, the leak suggests that the company might remove this timer altogether in a future update.
Notably, if this report turns out to be true, then WhatsApp will not be the first instant messaging service to remove the time limit for the ‘Delete for Everyone’ feature. Both Instagram and Telegram users already have the ability to delete older messages from the app without the time limit.
The report goes on to state that WhatsApp users can delete a message for everyone without any restriction on the time period with the current state of development. However, we need to wait to know if there will be further changes to this feature with time. We can get to know only when the feature is finally rolled out to users via a future update.
