The Lemon Fool

Away from the dog has eaten my whatsapp messages - a few technical questions.

Can a sender delete an outgoing message that subsequently disappears from the receiver's phone?

Can the receiver delete the message that would have the effect of the message vanishing from the sender's phone?

When you delete a whatapp message (sender or receiver) - does it vanish from the phone's memory or is it still somewhere there?

Does a factory reset delete all data? Of course related to the above does a factory reset by a sender delete messages from the recipients' phones?

Thanks

T7

Hold on a sec...I'll ask our tech support team...

Hi Boris, someone here asking a question about WhatsApp...need your help!

Could I ask another one. Can you retrieve your old messages when you put your old sim card into your new phone ? Just happened to me.

I don't use whatsapp, but I believe it's based on Whisper technology, like Signal, that certainly has functionality for time based self destructing messages.So you can send messages that will subsequently evaporate on both devices after a set amount of time.

It's also incredibly easy to have your messages locked for ever if you migrate to a new number. They can't be opened on any device.

That help at all?

For my money, Signal is a much better solution that whatsapp.

I had to convince a female friend to contact me that way as I wouldn't use whatsapp, and I know she was quite worried about the evaporating messages! I wonder what she thought I was going to send????

https://signal.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Whisper_Systems

I use both WA and Signal, WA is far more user friendly for non techies, especially with multiple devices/browser access and automated backups - hence its popularity.

Multi OS/device use and backups with Signal are, frankly, a PITA. I get their security first premise and use it with other techies who 'get it'.

Session is another whisper based messaging app that can be used without using your mobile number at all if you really want to push the anonymous boat out...

terminal7 wrote:Can a sender delete an outgoing message that subsequently disappears from the receiver's phone?

Can the receiver delete the message that would have the effect of the message vanishing from the sender's phone?

When you delete a whatapp message (sender or receiver) - does it vanish from the phone's memory or is it still somewhere there?

Does a factory reset delete all data? Of course related to the above does a factory reset by a sender delete messages from the recipients' phones?

Can a sender delete an outgoing message that subsequently disappears from the receiver's phone?
Yes but leaves a note saying 'message deleted' so recepient knows something's up

Can the receiver delete the message that would have the effect of the message vanishing from the sender's phone?
Pretty sure answer is No.

When you delete a whatapp message (sender or receiver) - does it vanish from the phone's memory or is it still somewhere there?
If you have the setting activated it will be stored on iCloud (for Apple phones and equivalent for android) thus retrievable. If option not activated it's gone for good.

Does a factory reset delete all data?
Unless it's saved on cloud storage.

Of course related to the above does a factory reset by a sender delete messages from the recipients' phones?
No

Maroochydore wrote:

terminal7 wrote:Can a sender delete an outgoing message that subsequently disappears from the receiver's phone?

Can the receiver delete the message that would have the effect of the message vanishing from the sender's phone?

When you delete a whatapp message (sender or receiver) - does it vanish from the phone's memory or is it still somewhere there?

Does a factory reset delete all data? Of course related to the above does a factory reset by a sender delete messages from the recipients' phones?

Can a sender delete an outgoing message that subsequently disappears from the receiver's phone?
Yes but leaves a note saying 'message deleted' so recepient knows something's up

Can the receiver delete the message that would have the effect of the message vanishing from the sender's phone?
Pretty sure answer is No.

When you delete a whatapp message (sender or receiver) - does it vanish from the phone's memory or is it still somewhere there?
If you have the setting activated it will be stored on iCloud (for Apple phones and equivalent for android) thus retrievable. If option not activated it's gone for good.

Does a factory reset delete all data?
Unless it's saved on cloud storage.

Of course related to the above does a factory reset by a sender delete messages from the recipients' phones?
No

In an ideal world these answers may be true. In reality it's more complicated than that.

One quick example: I am a non-admin member of a WhatsApp group. One of the other non-admin members was able to change a setting that resulted in messages being automatically deleted after 24 hours. Messages and images sent by other members (i.e. not me and not the person who changed the setting) were deleted from my phone and I presume from the phones of all the other recipients. An admin then reversed the change and the messages did not reappear, I reckon they were gone for good.

You also have to bear in mind that WhatsApp now works across multiple devices and you can have an image deleted on one device but not another. You can also of course manually save images to permanent storage on any device and then it would be beyond the reach of Whatsapp to delete it. Entire message threads can also be downloaded and saved.

So as I said, it's not straightforward.

GS