WhatsApp announces Accidental Delete, the feature that helps you recover accidentally deleted messages

After first introducing the Delete option for deleting accidentally sent messages, WhatsApp is introducing Accidental Delete, the opposite feature that helps you recover accidentally deleted messages.

The new feature will be accessible within the first 5 seconds of unintentionally deleting a message using the Delete for Me option, after which the first command remains irreversible.

The Delete for Me option is intended to delete messages from your own conversation window, but is sometimes confused with the Delete option, used to delete/recall messages already sent. So instead of deleting for everyone, some users end up accidentally deleting the sent message only from their own conversation window.

In the app, selecting a message to delete will display the Delete for Me or Delete for Everyone option. If you accidentally select the first option, immediately after applying the command a pop-up window will appear above the keyboard, allowing you to cancel the operation.

WhatsApp has allowed deleting messages since 2017. The option is available for both individual conversations and group chats with multiple users. Specifically, to revoke an accidentally sent message we proceed in the same way as when we want to delete a message from our own thread, only instead of the “delete” option we tick “delete for everyone”. The basic condition is that you must be within a time window of 60 hours, after which messages sent become permanent.