WhatsApp users were ecstatic with the news that the app added a much anticipated ‘unsend’ feature late last month.
The feature worked in the way that one can unsend a message within seven minutes of sending and the recipient would never see the message.
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Once you and your contacts have updated the app to the latest version you are able to use the unsend feature as much as you like.
If you delete a message with the new feature it will disappear from both your conversation and your recipient’s conversation but there will be an alert confirming that the message has been deleted, meaning your friends will know you are censoring yourself.
However the app only allows you to unsend a message within seven minutes of sending it, that is the catch, but there are ways to get past this annoying rule.
According to the Android Jefe blog, you can delete messages up to seven days ago on WhatsApp if you use their handy trick.
They use some simple loopholes in the apps functionality and your phone’s operating system to make your unsend power last one week.
This trick works on both Android and iPhone.
It involves changing the phone’s date to the day before the message was sent and making sure your WhatsApp is not connected to the internet.
It sounds harder than it actually is.
The trick also works regardless of whether the recipient has seen the message or not, which may defeat the purpose of deletion but we don’t know what you get up to so here you are.
How to unsend WhatsApp message after the 7-minute deadline
1. Disconnect your phone’s Internet connection (Wifi and mobile data) – On an iPhone go to your settings to turn off to be sure.
2. Stop the WhatsApp – close down the window.
3. Change the date of your phone to the day before the message you want to delete was sent.
4. Open WhatsApp again and find the message you wanted to delete.
5. To unsend a message on WhatsApp all you need to do is hold down on the message and few options will pop up all you need to do is click delete then click delete for everyone.
6. Then go back and reset your date to the current date.
7. Reconnect to the internet.
When I tried this method after I clicked delete for everyone the WhatsApp app closed unexpectedly but when I reopened the app the message I had sent yesterday was deleted.
Once you reconnect to the internet the message will be deleted on your recipient’s conversation.
Stopping the WhatsApp application on Android will involve going to settings, then applications then select WhatsApp and select force detention.
Although the handy unsend feature extends to the WhatsApp Web version, this trick doesn’t work on the Web app but you can always just open your phone and delete the message that you sent on the Web app.
Remember that when you are changing the date to the day before you sent the message make sure to configure the time as well.
If you try to delete a message older than 7 days WhatsApp will get suspicious and display a warning forcing you to update the date on your phone.
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