WhatsApp has quietly changed the way its message deletion feature works. Originally introduced in October, the WhatsApp “delete for everyone” used to only allow you to delete messages up to seven minutes after you sent them. WABetaInfo has noticed that the latest version of WhatsApp extends that time limit significantly to one hour, eight minutes, and 16 seconds.
WhatsApp messages can now be deleted an hour after you sent them by mistake
is a senior correspondent and author of Notepad, who has been covering all things Microsoft, PC, and tech for over 20 years.
It’s not clear why the limit is now so specific, apart from being 2^12, and the WhatsApp support pages don’t provide any additional info on the time limit. An hour means you now have far longer to delete messages sent by mistake, or can wipe out entire conversations from a friend’s phone. WhatsApp doesn’t have a secret conversations option like rivals where it creates a temporary conversation that isn’t stored on sender or recipient devices. This additional time could help facilitate more temporary conversations on WhatsApp.
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