How to delete Sent WhatsApp messages

Here’s how you can delete Sent WhatsApp messages on Android and iOS. You can delete a specific message you’ve sent to either a group or an individual chat. This feature is particularly useful if you sent a message to the wrong recipient or group or if the message you sent contains a mistake.

Please take note on the following:

• In order for messages to be successfully deleted, both you and all your recipient must be using the latest version of WhatsApp.
• Recipients may see your message before it’s deleted or if deletion wasn’t successful.
• You won’t be notified if deleting for everyone wasn’t successful.
• You only have about an hour after you’ve sent a message to Delete for Everyone.

See also how to backup and restore WhatsApp chat history.

How to delete Sent WhatsApp messages

WhatsApp on Android

1. Open WhatsApp app.
2. Tap and hold the message you wanted to delete.
   • optionally you can tap more message if you want to delete multiple messages at once.
3. Tap the trash bin icon at the top of the chat window.
4. You will have two options:
   • Delete for Me – delete the message only in your chat, recipient still can read the message
   • Delete for Everyone – delete the message in your chat and the recipient chat

WhatsApp on iOS

1. Open WhatsApp app.
2. Tap and hold the message you wanted to delete.
   • optionally you can tap more message if you want to delete multiple messages at once
3. Tap the trash bin icon at the top of the chat window.
4. If prompted, tap More >> Delete.
5. You will have two options:
   • Delete for Me – delete the message only in your chat, recipient still can read the message
   • Delete for Everyone – delete the message in your chat and the recipient chat

For Delete for Everyone, if successfully delete, the selected message(s) will disappear from your chat, and for everyone in your recipients’ chats will be replaced with “This message was deleted“.

Similarly, if you see “This message was deleted” in a chat, it means that the sender deleted their message for everyone.