WhatsApp adds undo button for your message deletion mishaps

If you accidentally delete a message just for yourself rather than the whole chat, you now have the option to fix your mistake.

WhatsApp has rolled out a new feature that allows users to restore deleted messages on the platform. Accidental Delete grants users a five-second window to bring back messages, acting as a safety net for WhatsApp users to correct mistaken deletions or reselect how they want a message to be deleted.

There are currently two options available for deleting messages on WhatsApp: “Delete for me” (which hides the message from yourself but keeps it visible for everyone else) and “Delete for everyone.” Previously, if a user accidentally selected “Delete for me” instead of “Delete for everyone,” there was no way to access the message and select the correct deletion option — a distressing situation if you need to remove something sensitive from a group chat. Five seconds may not be long, but it’s enough time to quickly fix an uncomfortable mistake.

The feature is automatic, appearing as an “Undo” button on a floating bar at the bottom of the app after a user selects “Delete for me” on a message. From our testing, Accidental Delete only works with messages deleted for the user, so there’s still no way to restore messages deleted for everyone in a group chat. Once a message is restored, you can either choose to leave it up or else delete it again — for everyone this time. 

The feature started rolling out in beta around August this year but is now officially rolling out across iOS and Android.