WhatsApp Group Admin Will Soon Be Able to Delete Your Messages
WhatsApp has been around for over a decade now, and group chats have been a WhatsApp feature since 2011 and yet it hadn’t this important feature to delete messages sent by other members, for all group members. Now they are finally testing this feature so admins can delete messages sent by other members.
Currently, WhatsApp group admins can only boot to members and control who joins, who can send messages, and how disappearing messages are configured. Tools for moderating activity in chat are extremely limited, and it’s currently not possible to delete messages. Interestingly, the company is testing that exact capability.
WhatsApp is Testing New Feature
The WABetaInfo report states that upcoming builds of the messaging app allow group admins to delete messages sent by participants by simply long-tapping and selecting the “Delete for everyone” option. Chat will retain a placeholder for the deleted message mentioning the name of the administrator who deleted it. This will make it clear to all participants that this was an action taken by the administrators and not by the original sender.
WhatsApp is not introducing any new or novel features here. It is only catching up to rival feature-rich services like Telegram and Discord. This feature is not completely new for WhatsApp either. We first saw it in December, and then in May for what seemed like an internal test. It is now part of the public beta channel.
Reports suggest that the rollout on the beta channel is very slow, and it may take some time for most WhatsApp users to get the feature. If you’ve signed up for the WhatsApp beta, you might see this feature rolling out in the coming weeks. Until then, you’ll have to let members go with warnings or just show them the door to keep your group chats as normal.