WhatsApp's unsend feature will soon let users delete shameful messages

[midian182]

Thanks to the numerous messaging apps available today, communicating with each other has never been easier. But that also means the risk of sending something you regret while in a highly emotional state (I.e. drunk) is quite high. Thankfully for WhatsApp’s 1.2 billion+ monthly users, the popular service is in the final stages of testing a feature that allows you to delete a message after it's been sent.

WABetaInfo, a Twitter account that covers WhatsApp beta news, revealed that the company has been testing the ‘Delete for everyone’ feature on both Android and iOS. The leaker also said that the dedicated recall servers are now fully functioning and can successfully delete sent messages.

WABetaInfo explained that the feature isn’t currently live, but it may be remotely enabled for everyone “soon.”

DELETE FOR EVERYONE NEWS!
[AVAILABLE SOON!] pic.twitter.com/GQ6eqbNvSn

— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) September 12, 2017

One clever part of the feature is the way recalled messages appear in the Notification Center. Recipients will be alerted when they’ve received a message, as normal, but if the sender removes them, the notification will read: “This message was deleted.” So, providing you erase them quickly enough, nobody will ever know what disturbing things you sent after an 8-hour drinking session. But there is one possible caveat: according to earlier reports, users will only have a five-minute window in which to delete their sent messages.

WhatsApp for Android: when the sender deletes the message for everyone, it will be updated in the Notification Center too [AVAILABLE SOON] pic.twitter.com/69fFUrXl35

— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) September 12, 2017

There’s been no word from WhatsApp on when the feature might be available for everyone, but with rumors of its testing floating around since January, and its appearance last month in a beta version of the app for Windows Phones, expect Delete for everyone to launch in the next few weeks - if not sooner.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/70964-whatsapp-unsend-feature-soon-users-delete-messages-they.html

 

[madboyv1]

Not that I use whatsapp, but what happened to living with the consequences of what you say and do? XD

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

8-hour drinking session? That's just getting started. Whatever happened to the 24 hour endurance session.

 

[Tanstar]

Can they "Unsend" something that has already been read. I see lots of ways that could be misused, from sending nudes to cyber bullying.

 

[mojorisin23]

I imagine to work like the recall email function in outlook. If its been read already, it will just say "recall failed". if not, it will be deleted on the receivers end. I can't imagine it working any other way...

 

[captaincranky]

Not that I use whatsapp, but what happened to living with the consequences of what you say and do? XD

Dude, get real. This is 2017. Unless your name is "Pew Die Pie", or your're employed as a high ranking corporate official, nobody has to live with the consequences of what they say. You could however, "un-live" with the consequences, depending on where you say it... (Ad that whole "PDP thing", will likely blow over).

8-hour drinking session? That's just getting started. Whatever happened to the 24 hour endurance session.

You sound like an Aussie. Is this whole Southern Hemisphere like that?

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Dude, get real. This is 2017. Unless your name is "Pew Die Pie", or your're employed as a high ranking corporate official, nobody has to live with the consequences of what they say. You could however, "un-live" with the consequences, depending on where you say it... (Ad that whole "PDP thing", will likely blow over).

You sound like an Aussie. Is this whole Southern Hemisphere like that?

Being British born and having lived in the Northern Hemisphere for a large part of my life I'd say the Northerners are worse. Take Finland for example, they have the biggest alcohol problem in the world yet a very low serious crime rate. Go figure.