WhatsApp has quietly changed the way its message deletion feature works. Originally introduced in October, the WhatsApp “delete for everyone” used to only allow you to delete messages up to seven minutes after you sent them. WABetaInfo has noticed that the latest version of WhatsApp extends that time limit significantly to one hour, eight minutes, and 16 seconds.
It’s not clear why the limit is now so specific, apart from being 2^12, and the WhatsApp support pages don’t provide any additional info on the time limit. An hour means you now have far longer to delete messages sent by mistake, or can wipe out entire conversations from a friend’s phone. WhatsApp doesn’t have a secret conversations option like rivals where it creates a temporary conversation that isn’t stored on sender or recipient devices. This additional time could help facilitate more temporary conversations on WhatasApp.
A new WhatsApp for iOS update (2.18.31) is available on AppStore.
It is a bug fixes update, but it has the new “Delete for everyone” limit, that’s 1 hour, 8 minutes and 16 seconds.— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) March 8, 2018
Source: The Verge