Taking a page out of Snapchat’s playbook and embracing a more temporary option for messaging, WhatsApp will now allow users to delete messages after they’ve sent them.
They’ve been testing for most of the past year, and are now officially implementing the feature that allows users to delete messages after they’ve sent them. With a catch, however: You have only seven minutes to act before the message stays permanently in the inbox of personal conversations and group chats.
WhatsApp forever. Sort of.
And, of course, what has been seen can’t be unseen. And screenshots are still a thing. So it’s not like this is the answer to all of your prayers if you’ve sent something you didn’t mean to. But it’s kind of nice knowing that something sent in error won’t necessarily have to be addressed, or won’t have to stay permanent if you’re having regrets about what it is that you sent.
Just go to “delete” and then hit “delete for everyone” and breathe a big sigh of relief.
Expect to see the feature this week, with the latest updated version of WhatsApp (the person you’re messaging will need the latest version as well), and see if it makes a difference next time you send something embarrassing to a Tinder date, or accidentally send a family member something meant for your Tinder date, or, you know, anything else that wasn’t supposed to travel across the WhatsApp airwaves.
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