The exciting part about the Delete for Everyone feature is that it just doesn’t delete the text message; it also removes the images and videos as well.
However, a recent loophole has come to surface, and it’s essential to know if this feature genuinely works or not? It contains an unpatched privacy bug, which goes forward to form a negative sense of privacy for the users.
As the name suggests, Delete for Everyone, has been meant to delete any message in any format that was sent mistakenly.
The feature was introduced in both the operating systems, i.e. iOS and Android. However, the recent privacy bug is surfacing for iPhone users, and it seems to be working perfectly fine with Android users. This brings us to the question of whether or not our privacy is remaining private or not.
Sender’s deleted image or video can still be found in the recipient’s camera roll in iPhone. However, the same can’t be done on Android.
With the default setting in iPhone, Delete for Everyone feature doesn’t delete media files sent to iPhone users as opposed to Android. If the user has their default settings on, they might still be able to view the deleted data in their gallery even though the sender has deleted the message.
Recent testing has shown that the WhatsApp feature is not designed to delete media files from the gallery of your iPhone. It can be altered if the settings are changed in the phone which rarely anyone cares about. Therefore it becomes very crucial to be very careful about this.
WhatsApp’s close competitor, the Telegram messenger, was also tested for the same Delete for Everyone functionality. A similar flaw was also witnessed in the latter messenger; however, there was a quick response by Telegram on the same. The company immediately patched the privacy bug to maintain the proper use of the feature.
On the other hand, WhatsApp had a completely different response. According to them, “The functionality provided via “Delete for Everyone” is intended to delete the message and there is no guarantee that the media (or message) will be permanently deleted—the implementation focuses around the message presented on WhatsApp.”
Delete for Everyone- A Hit or Miss?
With this set into prospective, the privacy credibility of WhatsApp can be questioned. The Delete for Everyone feature gives us a sense of privacy which can be false. It might be okay for some people, but others find this feature handy when the wrong message is sent across. Even though WhatsApp has confirmed that they provide no guarantee on the same, however, they are working on improving certain aspects of the app. It
Since this works perfectly well with Android, it is not difficult to provide the same for iPhone users as well.
Do you trust WhatsApp chat on iOS, or do you prefer a different app? Let us know where you stand in the comments down below, or on our socials, on Facebook and Twitter.
