Recover Messages With WhatsApp's ‘Accidental Delete’ Feature WhatsApp now allows users to restore a message they unintentionally deleted from a chat. The feature has been made available on individual as well as group chats on WhatsApp.

The Accidental Delete feature works for both group chats and individual chats

Many WhatsApp users would admit to hitting the irrevocable ‘Delete for Me’ button instead of ‘Delete for Everyone’ for a missent message in a chat. Moreover, there was no way to recover such message and delete it for everyone afterward. WhatsApp has finally taken this issue into cognizance and rolled out the ‘Accidental Delete’ feature that lets you restore an unintentionally deleted message in a chat.

With the new ‘Accidental Delete’ feature, WhatsApp users can now undo the delete for me action and recover the accidentally deleted messages within 5 seconds of tapping on the ‘Delete for Me’ button.

WhatsApp officially announced the release of the feature on Twitter.

We’ve added the option to undo ‘Delete for me’ for those times when you mean to delete for everyone but accidentally deleted for just yourself.Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp, overseeing development and strategy

As confirmed by the WhatsApp feature tracker WABetaInfo, the WhatsApp feature was earlier beta tested in August 2022 with a few iOS and Android users. The company has now officially rolled out the feature for its Android and iPhone users.

WhatsApp Gives More Control and Freedom to Users

The ‘Accidental Delete’ feature is the latest addition to several features that give more control to users over sharing texts and media on WhatsApp.

End-to-end backup encryption, two-step verification, blocking and reporting unwanted users

WhatsApp released the ‘Delete for Everyone’ feature back in 2017. The feature allows its users to delete missent messages for all the recipients in a chat. The initial interval to remove a mistakenly message from a chat was 16 seconds, which was then increased to eight minutes and one hour.

Presently, WhatsApp allows you to permanently delete an unintentionally sent message for everyone within 60 hours of sending it. The Meta-owned instant messaging app made the recent enhancement in August 2022.

But What About Telegram?

Telegram, the closest rival of WhatsApp, allows its users to delete a wrongly sent message anytime after hitting the send button. On Telegram, you can delete a sent message for the recipient(s) even after years of sending it.

Privacy by design is vital for modern communication technology

Besides the above, WhatsApp also uses end-to-end encryption to secure messages and calls for its users. End-to-end encryption ensures that the calls and messages sent over WhatsApp are read by the sender and receiver only and by nobody in between, not even by WhatsApp itself.

WhatsApp also allows you to turn on disappearing messages. With Disappearing Messages turned on, you can set a default timer of 24 hours, seven days, or 90 days for a chat on WhatsApp. It will automatically erase the messages from the particular chat for which the Disappearing Messages are turned on after the set duration.