Can you delete a message for everyone in a WhatsApp group chat?

Home Tech News WhatsApp group admins to become more powerful! They can delete messages for everyone

Meta owned messaging app will reportedly roll out a new feature that will allow WhatsApp group admins to delete messages sent by other group members.

Meta owned WhatsApp is reportedly working on a new feature that may give WhatsApp group admins more control of the chat groups. The new feature is rolling out in a new update version up to 2.22.11.4 through the Google Play Beta Program. As per the reports shared by WhatsApp updates tracker WABetaInfo, the admins will soon be able to delete WhatsApp messages even if they are sent by members and once done, users will see the text, “This was removed by an admin.” Though this feature is still underdevelopment, the portal has shared a screenshot of what the new feature looks like.

Sharing the screengrab of the new feature, they wrote, “When the feature is enabled, and you delete an incoming message for everyone in a group, other people will read who deleted the message, and this is what WhatsApp wants to let you know. "

WhatsApp group admins to get more power

The upcoming feature will be a major shift on the instant messaging platform following the launch of ephemeral messages last year. Once the feature is rolled out, WhatsApp group admins will be allowed to act as moderators aside from possessing the power to remove members from the group. The move seems to be aimed at giving more power to group admins so that they can control the flow of content in their groups.

Apart from this, the messaging app is also planning to extend the time limit to delete a message for everyone: 2 days and 12 hours. This feature will be made available in a future update. However, there is no official confirmation about the release date of the same.

Meanwhile, the app has rolled out an emoji reactions feature allowing WhatsApp users to react to the status of their friends and family with emojis. It is similar to the ones available on other social networking sites such as Facebook and Instagram. The feature named as message reaction will allow users to react to a message using six emojis- LIke, Love, Laugh, Surprised, Thanks and Sad.

WhatsApp introduced ‘Delete for everyone’ as an option sometime back, and it is one of the most useful features that the messaging service offered to its users. The feature saves anyone from the embarrassment if they have accidentally sent a wrong message to a group or an individual chat. However, there are times when WhatsApp’s ‘Delete for everyone’ feature is not working and people wonder what might have gone wrong. We explain everything about this feature and how it works.

WhatsApp ‘Delete for everyone’ feature: What is it?

As the name suggests, it allows you to delete messages that you have sent accidentally to an individual or group chat. While this a great feature to have, WhatsApp also displays a label when you delete a specific message: “This message was deleted.” The person on the other side then gets to know that you have deleted a message. Using this feature, one can delete photos, videos, and messages as well.

Is there a way to read deleted WhatsApp messages?

Yes, there are two ways. You will find a few third-party apps on Google Play Store that show you messages that were deleted. However, one should not try these apps as they are not authorised and can compromise privacy of your WhatsApp account.  Besides, there is a loophole in WhatsApp, which lets you check deleted WhatsApp messages in the notification panel if you have not cleared it.

How to delete WhatsApp messages for everyone in the chat?

Step 1: Open WhatsApp, and visit the chat containing the message you want to delete.

Step 2: Tap and hold the message and press on the dustbin icon, placed on the top bar of the chat. Once you tap on it, you will get three options, including Delete for me, Delete for everyone and Cancel.

Step 3: Tap on Delete for Everyone and the message will get deleted.

When does ‘Delete for everyone’ not work?

The company says that this feature will only work if you and the recipient are on the latest WhatsApp version. So, if ‘Delete for everyone’ is not visible or not working, then you should check whether you are using the latest version. If there is an update, you will likely see it on the respective app stores.

Also, if you don’t delete a message in about an hour, then you won’t get the ‘Delete for everyone’ option. The messaging service will only show you ‘Delete for me’ option. WhatsApp says “you won’t be notified if deleting for everyone wasn’t successful.” The company has noted that in case the app fails to delete a message, you will not be notified. So, you should be careful before sending any messages to anyone and should not completely rely on the delete messages feature.

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