We have all been there, done that, and regretted the hell out of it. I am talking about drunk texting someone, only to come to your senses later on, and curse yourself for having done that. Sometimes, you were not even drunk from alcohol, perhaps drunk from strong emotions of anger or happiness to the extent your good judgment was impaired.
Well, this article is not on how to stop drunk texting, but on if you do, where should you be doing it? Previously, we have presented to you apps such as On Second Thought that let you stop a ‘sending message dead on its track before it leaves your phone and into the recipient’s inbox.’
Today, we have learned that one of the world’s most popular instant messaging app, WhatsApp has outed a new interesting feature to its beta channel, ‘Delete for Everyone.’ The feature is currently being tested in WhatsApp beta version 2.17.246.0.
The feature previously went by the name ‘Recall’ but now goes as ‘Delete for Everyone.’ As it works out, if you have second thoughts about a text you sent someone on WhatsApp, now you have the option of deleting the message from your sent messages and in their inbox.
The following is a screenshot of the feature in action as leaked by WABetainfo. Although there is always a possibility that the recipient will screenshot the message; especially if they have reasons to believe you may want to retract from the message.
To be truly useful, WhatsApp should operate like Messenger, where you can start a secret chat with someone, and the messages sent therein do disappear after a period when the recipient has viewed it. The time it takes to disappear after the user has seen the sender sets it.
Either way, there is no denying this feature will come in handy the morning after your drunk night texting. Hopefully, by the time you will be sobering up the next morning; the recipient would not have woken up and scrolled through their messages. Then you will have a good use for ‘Delete for Everyone,’ given if they had already viewed the message before you delete it. The damage would be already done; what lacks is just the evidence of the message you sent.
