WhatsApp lets Android beta users delete messages within 4096 seconds

Back in October 2017, WhatsApp came up with the much-awaited Delete for Everyone feature. This feature was initially rolled out to the Android beta users and lets them delete unintended messages within seven minutes of sending the same. Now, WhatsApp has come up with a massive change to this feature by extending the deadline to delete the messages sent by mistake.

According to a report by the WABetaInfo blog, WhatsApp extends the deadline to delete the messages from 7 minutes to 68 minutes. Eventually, the Android beta users with the version number 2.18.69 can use the Delete for Everyone feature within 4096 seconds (68 minutes and 16 seconds) instead of the earlier deadline of 420 seconds.

The blog post notes that the change in the Delete for Everyone feature is available only for the Android beta users right now and we can expect it to be rolled out to the iOS users soon.

Notably, when the users had the ability to delete the accidentally sent messages within 7 minutes, there were tricks followed by the recipients to recover the deleted messages even after the deadline from the notification log. Also, as a part of the feature, the quoted messages will still be visible even if the original message has been deleted for everyone. Not to mention the trick that some users followed to delete the unintended messages even after the deadline of seven minutes.

As per the blog post by the fan site of WhatsApp, in addition to the extension in the deadline to delete the messages, the 2.18.69 Android beta version of the app comes with changes made to the upcoming Stickers feature. When the WhatsApp Stickers feature is made available for the users, it will let them forward stickers. The report states that the previous beta version had an issue that crashes the app when the users try to send GIF. This issue seems to have been fixed in the recent beta version.

Having said that, we can see new features such as the ability to make group video and voice calls, Stickers, and up to 4096 seconds of time limit to delete the messages in the next Android beta version of WhatsApp.