The deadline for deleting a WhatsApp message may soon be extended.
Details from WABetaInfo claim that, since the release of WhatsApp beta for Android 2.18.69, the deadline has been increased from seven minutes up to 4,096 seconds – or a very specific 68 minutes, 16 seconds. It is likely to roll out to iOS soon.
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WhatsApp began rolling out the “undo send” feature to the app last October and to remove a message you didn’t mean to send, simply hold down on the text and press delete. You’ll then be presented with the option to delete the message on your phone or tablet only, or “delete for everyone”, in which the message will be removed from the chat completely. If you choose the latter, it is replaced with “This message was deleted.”
The images below show how it appears:
However, you can’t delete a mesage if the person has already seen it.
On one level, it’s quite impressive WhatsApp seems to have carried this skill across to notifications…
On the other, this is simply highlighting your embarrassing faux pas with a push notification: the smartphone equivalent of shouting it from the rooftops.
In other words, this isn’t half as effective as just proofreading your goddamned messages in the first place. WhatsApp is enabling your recklessness with this slightly lame get-out clause, and sparing you one of the digital world’s most important lessons: think before you type.
But if you really can’t be trusted not to embarrass yourself whenever you pick up a smartphone, maybe you should consider taking drastic action.
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