Whatsapp beta users are beginning to see an option that allows them to recover deleted WhatsApp messages, something that we have been asking the platform for a long time.
Whatsapp has been worrying for a long time about allowing to delete a sent message, but often we delete a wrong message, or delete it only for ourselves, when we wanted to delete it for the whole group.
This second case is quite common:
– We write a message in a group.
– We realize it was wrong, and we quickly delete it before anyone else sees it.
– We made a mistake and I delete it just for myself, instead of «for me and the rest of the group».
Doing this removes the ability to go back and delete it properly, and that’s what Whatsapp wants to prevent.
For some months WhatsApp has been internally testing an option to undo the accidental deletion of messages, and now, in version 2.22.18.13, you can see the option to recover in previous versions (not all users, only some).
Activation of more beta testers is planned for the next few weeks.
How deleted messages recovery works
In this video I explain how it works: click here.
To bring the message back to life, we’ll see a floating notification after deletion. In said notification we will have an Undo button to help recover the deleted message. That bar can only be seen for a few seconds, so if we want to retrieve the message after that time, we will not be able to do so.
It is very similar to what Gmail does when we send an email, it gives us a few seconds to repent. Once shipped, there is no going back.
The feature will surely be available to everyone within a few weeks, but a fixed date has not yet been defined.
