Although today it seems like a lie, not so long ago that WhatsApp did not allow deleting messages sent in our chats. That is, if we sent a message to the wrong chat, the only thing we had left was to swallow and write apologizing for the error.
However, over time we saw how the messaging app included the option of being able to delete messages from any chat in the event that we made a mistake or regret what we have sent in time. If you want to know how to delete messages on WhatsApp, all the options and aspects to take into account , we show a complete guide on how to do it below.
Surely on more than one occasion we have seen how in one of the conversations with our contacts the message appears This message has been deleted. This means that someone has sent something but has subsequently deleted it. The same happens if we are the ones who delete a message, since the same literal will appear in the chat.
Now, it is important to know that so that the person or people to whom we have sent the message cannot read it, we will have to delete it before they have read it. If we have sent the message in a group, some members may have read it and others not when we are about to delete it. Therefore, if we want to delete WhatsApp messages, it is best that we do it as soon as possible.
Time to delete a WhatsApp message
Initially, when the messaging app incorporated the function that allows you to delete WhatsApp messages, a maximum of 7 minutes was established to be able to delete the message. That is, if we proceeded to delete it before the first 7 minutes after sending it, we could delete it without any problem. Now, if we tried after that time, then it was no longer possible to delete the WhatsApp message.
Luckily, Mark Zuckerberg’s later decided to extend that time and today it is set at approximately one hour and 8 minutes. It is not as much as what Telegram offers us, but the truth is that it offers us a little more freedom than when it was only 7 minutes.
However, if we want to delete a message sent to one of our contacts and that has not yet been read, but we have sent it for more than an hour and 8 minutes, we can try to delete it as follows . We activate the airplane mode in our terminal, we enter the phone settings, we change the clock time to establish it in a moment shortly after sending the message, we deactivate the airplane mode and we proceed to delete the WhatsApp message.
Delete WhatsApp messages in a chat or group
It is possible to delete WhatsApp messages from an individual or group chat, but also, we can also delete a message for ourselves or for all, something that we can decide at the time we are about to delete it.
Delete messages for me
The famous messaging application allows you to delete messages that we have sent or received on our phone and that this does not affect the chats of our contacts. That is, we can delete messages from a chat so that they disappear from the screen of our phone and that this does not affect the chats of our contacts. The messages will be deleted from our screen but will continue to appear in the chat of our contact where we have eliminated it.
To do this, all we have to do is:
- We open WhatsApp.
- We go to the chat in which we want to delete the message.
- Press and hold the message we want to delete until it is selected .
- We tap on the trash can icon that appears in the top bar of the app.
- We select the Delete option for me that is displayed in the window that appears.
We can also select several messages from that same chat by holding down each one to delete several WhatsApp messages at once. These messages will disappear from our screen, showing the literal ” This message was deleted “, but they will still be visible on the screen of the person with whom we have opened that chat.
Delete messages for everyone
Both in individual chats and in groups we can delete WhatsApp messages that affect the chats of the rest of the participants. Therefore, it is what we will have to do to eliminate a message that we have sent by mistake. For it:
- We open WhatsApp.
- We go to the chat or group in which we want to delete the message.
- Press and hold the message we want to delete until it is selected .
- We tap on the trash can icon that appears in the top bar of the app.
- We select the Delete option for all that is shown in the window that appears.
- Both on our phone and on the rest of the chat or group participants, the literal ” This message was deleted ” will appear and they will no longer be able to see the original message.
It is important to know that the recipients of the deleted message have been able to see its content before we proceed with its deletion. If when we select the message we show the Info, we can see if there is someone who has already read it. If our recipient or recipients have not yet read it, then none of them will be able to see it once we have deleted it.
If any of the recipients has an iPhone and what we have sent in the message is a photo, it is possible that even after deleting the WhatsApp messages, those contacts have the photo saved on their device.
Delete all messages in a chat at once
If what we want is to delete all the messages of a chat in question, we must know that the messaging app also allows us to do so. It is a function that has been available on WhatsApp for a long time and is designed to eliminate all the messages of a chat . Therefore, it is not an action that influences the chats of our contacts, since they will be deleted only on our device.
To delete WhatsApp messages from a chat in question, all we have to do is:
- We open WhatsApp.
- We go to the chat in which we want to delete all messages.
- We tap on the menu button.
- Click on the More option.
- We select the option Empty chat.
- We check or uncheck the boxes Delete highlighted messages and Delete files from this chat.
- Click on Empty .
- WhatsApp messages from that chat will automatically be deleted.
