WhatsApp rolls out ‘Delete for Everyone’ feature; here’s how it works

You can only delete messages for everyone for up to seven minutes after sending.

Here’s everything you need to know about WhatsApp’s new feature. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)

Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp last week rolled out the most sought after feature - "Delete for Everyone." As the name suggests, the feature allows users to revoke their messages in case they sent those to a wrong person or a group.

You can only delete messages for everyone for up to seven minutes after sending.

"Once seven minutes have passed, there is no way to delete messages for everyone," Facebook-owned WhatsApp said in its updated FAQ last week. "In order for messages to be successfully deleted for everyone, both you and your recipient must be using the latest version of WhatsApp for Android, iPhone or Windows Phone," the micro-blogging platform said.

WhatsApp was working on this feature for almost a year. You can now delete messages for everyone or just for yourself.

"Deleting messages for everyone allows you to delete specific messages you have sent to either a group or an individual chat. This is particularly useful if you sent a message to the wrong chat or if the message you sent contains a mistake," WhatsApp noted.

Messages you successfully delete for everyone will be replaced with "This message was deleted" in your recipients' chats. Similarly, if you see "This message was deleted" in a chat, it means that the sender deleted their message for everyone.

This is how it works:

Open WhatsApp and go to the chat containing the message you wish to delete. Tap and hold the message and choose Delete from the menu.

Optionally, select more messages to delete multiple messages at once. Then tap "Delete for Everyone".

"If you or your recipient are not using the latest version of WhatsApp for Android, iPhone or Windows Phone, this feature will not be supported," WhatsApp said.

Recipients may see your message before it's deleted or if deletion was not successful.

According to WABetaInfo, a fan website that tracks WhatsApp, this feature works for messages in text, videos, GIFs, pictures, voice messages, quoted messages and status replies. The second part is to delete messages only for yourself.

Deleting messages for yourself allows you to delete your copy of messages you've sent or received from your phone.

"This has no effect on your recipients' chats. Your recipients will still see the messages in their chat screen," WhatsApp said.

For this, open WhatsApp and go to the chat containing the message you wish to delete. Tap and hold the message and choose Delete from the menu.

Optionally, select more messages to delete multiple messages at once. Then tap "Delete for Me". "The feature is being slowly rolled out and users can reinstall WhatsApp in order to download from the server the latest configuration," WABetaInfo said.