WhatsApp Testing Feature To ‘Unsend’ A Message And Delete The Notification From The Recipient’s Phone

Ever sent a message and immediately regretted it? We’ve all been there and have wished for a feature to undo the catastrophe. Now, WhatsApp is testing a neat feature that does exactly this and even deletes the notification of your text message.

The feature, called Delete for Everyone, is now in the final testing phase, which means it should be available soon. According to Tech Radar, the recall servers are now fully functioning and are successfully deleting messages and notifications. However, WhatsApp users can’t access this feature yet.

This feature was discovered when eagle-eyed users noticed lines of codes referring to the function within the WhatsApp code. It was first teased in June and was first spotted in the wild in August. The Delete for Everyone option appeared in its Windows beta version, which could mean that it is almost ready to be rolled out to all devices pretty soon.

It is a huge step for WhatsApp, but it’s been due for a long time now. Other messaging apps like Telegram and Viber have had this feature for a while. The billions of users of WhatsApp have been anticipating this feature for years, and it looks like they won’t have to wait long.

How Delete For Everyone Works

WhatsApp’s Delete for Everyone feature recalls the message, hopefully before the recipient has read it, to save you from potential embarrassment. There are many circumstances that call for it, such as drunk texting an ex, sending to the wrong person, or premature declarations of love. And because reading from notifications is a thing, WhatsApp decided to undo the notification, too.

In place of the original notification, however, is a message saying, “This message was deleted.” This means that person can still see you sent a message, but they can’t see what exactly you said (providing that you deleted it before they saw it).

DELETE FOR EVERYONE NEWS!
[AVAILABLE SOON!] pic.twitter.com/GQ6eqbNvSn

— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) September 12, 2017

It’s yet unconfirmed how it will work compared to similar features of other apps. The Independent reports that the Delete for Everyone option is only available until five minutes after you’ve sent the message. After that, and you can no longer undo that risky text.

According to the tipster WABetaInfo, the feature will be enabled remotely soon. It will work on both Android and iOS.

[Featured Image by Carl Court/Getty Images]