Whatsapp feature query

ashish

Adept
If we accidentally send any media to any group/person on whatsapp or to the wrong recipient and later on we realize it and we perform "Delete for everyone" action.
But what if that person or group members might have already downloaded and seen it and that media got downloaded on their phones.

Does "Delete for everyone" option used in such situations also deletes that downloaded media from all such users phones as well ?

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How exactly this feature works or is supposed to work ?

If the sent media when loaded still resides on the user/group users phones they can very well browse through the whatsapp path, search for it and share it manually further etc.

Asking as someone I know has accidentally shared his familys pic to a group rather than to his family group. Both the groups were pinned and coincidentally both the groups name start with similar alphabets hence the confusion.
The pics was of ladies tour hence the concern that it shouldn't land on xyz sites or cruel mined people shouldn't forge or do anything with them.
 
While the intent is indeed that the image is deleted from the gallery, there are a few exceptions and gotchas.
  • iPhone users who have enabled the ‘Save to Camera Roll’ setting can still see the image.
  • If the recipient has further forwarded or taken a screenshot of the image you sent, then you cannot delete the forwarded message or the screenshot from their gallery.
  • If the sender uses the "delete for me" option, then there is no way they can consequently delete that message from others' whatsapp chats in the future.
 
While the intent is indeed that the image is deleted from the gallery, there are a few exceptions and gotchas.
  • iPhone users who have enabled the ‘Save to Camera Roll’ setting can still see the image.
  • If the recipient has further forwarded or taken a screenshot of the image you sent, then you cannot delete the forwarded message or the screenshot from their gallery.
  • If the sender uses the "delete for me" option, then there is no way they can consequently delete that message from others' whatsapp chats in the future.
The above is fine.

What I"m asking is simple query.
If one does Delete for everyone does it gets deleted from the users phone as wel>??>
 
Simply put if the unintended had not bothered to do anything with the image it will be deleted from his phone. If he has take steps to save the image/ forward it, “ Delete for Everyone “ will not help
 
Rephrasing...

The image is supposed to be deleted from all the recipient user's phones. But Whatsapp only guarantees that it will be deleted from the recipient's Whatsapp, not the recipient's phone.

There are two exceptions that I know of:
  • it won't be deleted for iPhone-using recipients who have enabled the ‘Save to Camera Roll’ setting.
  • if a recipient has taken a screenshot of the image, they can keep that screenshot.
Lastly, if the sender first clicks ["Delete for me"] then after that they won't be able to click ["Delete for Everyone"].

As for the sender themselves, when they hit "Delete for Everyone" then the media will be deleted from the sender's Whatsapp as well, but not from the sender's phone.
 
Here's an easy way to find out

Send a picture to your mom/dad/brother/sister/wife/friend/aunt/uncle/neighbour or anyone you can find who uses WhatsApp.

Delete the message for everyone and then ask them to check their phone.
 
"Delete for everyone" deletes only from the chat.., not from the phone. So if the person has downloaded it, then you can't do anything
 
I think once the opp. person loads the images it will get saved to his phone and the sender if triggers Delete for Everyone" only the post gets deleted when the image/media might still reside on his phone in whasapp directory.

Unless someone experiments this live, the conclusion is still in question.
 
I think once the opp. person loads the images it will get saved to his phone and the sender if triggers Delete for Everyone" only the post gets deleted when the image/media might still reside on his phone in whasapp directory.

Unless someone experiments this live, the conclusion is still in question.
I did experiment with it few years ago when the delete for everyone thing was introduced in WhatsApp. The image got deleted from the WhatsApp directory on my android phone. I'm not sure about if this is still true in 2022.
 
Gets deleted on android, and also on iphone with default settings. The only direct exception without the recipient actively saving it, is on iPhones if the media is set to be saved to Camera Roll. Then Whatsapp does not have permissions to delete the image.

Of course if recipient manually saves it, screenshots it or forwards it then all bets are off. It's not foolproof.
 
I did experiment with it few years ago when the delete for everyone thing was introduced in WhatsApp. The image got deleted from the WhatsApp directory on my android phone. I'm not sure about if this is still true in 2022.
Woah! is it? Then seems this justifies. But again its whatsapp they might have changed the rule unknowingly..
 
Woah! is it? Then seems this justifies. But again its whatsapp they might have changed the rule unknowingly..
I see no reason why they shouldn't delete it from the WhatsApp directory.

As stated by @salian, if the person makes another copy somewhere, it won't be deleted. WhatsApp will only delete the copy it made.
 
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