WhatsApp raises the limit for revoking mistakenly sent messages to more than an hour

Facebook-owned WhatsApp has quietly extended the limit for the Delete For Everyone feature.

As first spotted by WABetaInfo, WhatsApp 2.18.31 or later for iPhone and iPad despite being a bug-fix update raises the Delete For Everyone limit to more than an hour.

The new limit to revoke a message is now one hour, eight minutes and sixteen seconds.

The Verge says this timeframe is so specific because it equates to 2^12 seconds, or 4,096 seconds. Previously, you could revoke a message within 8 minutes and 32 seconds.

To delete a message from everyone’s devices, tap a chat in the conversation list than tap and hold a chat bubble you’d like to delete. Choose the Delete option from the bubble menu, then tap the corresponding Delete for Everyone option from the popup menu. The message(s) you select will be deleted for any recipients who are on the latest version of WhatsApp.

However, if the recipient’s device was turned off for a period of 24 hours, the revoke request will be discarded afterwards. As you can see on the screenshots, when you delete a message for everyone—the recipient knows you have deleted it because a “This message was deleted” line appears in place of the deleted chats on the recipient’s device.

WhatsApp is also working on a new feature that would permit you to lock your recordings within the app, an improved spam-detection system and more.

Grab WhatsApp for iOS for free from App Store.