WhatsApp Beta finds a way to Revoke Unintended Texts

WhatsApp Beta: I am sure that everyone has sent a text ‘by mistake’ at one time or another. A drunken text that you are embarrassed about the next morning, a messaged you typed when out of your wits or just a message posted to the wrong group, we have all been there.

WhatsApp has figured out a way to put its users out of misery and delete these unwanted texts. A new feature in the WhatsApp Beta version of the app allows the sender to revoke any message that he/she does not intend for the receiver to see.

in WhatsApp Beta, the user must enable the feature which is turned off by default, in the Settings menu. Once the feature is on, select the message that needs to be deleted. A pop-up notification will appear with the option “delete for everyone”. By clicking on this, the message will be deleted for the sender and for everyone who has received it.

So now you don’t have to worry about forwarding a message mistakenly. Though the catch is that the feature will only work if everyone you’ve sent the message to is also using the updated version of the app. There is also a chance that the receiver might see the message before you delete it. Your misdeed might be revealed via a notification too.

Moreover, a deleted message will be replaced by the statement “this message has been deleted”. Well, this is better than having to hear your drunk-text being read out loud to a group of friends.

The feature has been in an experimental stage for most of 2017. We think the company is ready to roll out the full version now. The WhatsApp Beta throws some light on this news in an update regarding the Android 2.18.69 version. The new version plans to further extend the time within which one can revoke a message.

Instead of the 7-minute limit as per the previous version, the user can now delete a message for everyone up to 4096 seconds (or 68 minutes and 16 seconds). So you have almost an hour before you realizing that you need to revoke a message.