We've all been there. You’re in a WhatsApp chat, minding your business, when suddenly — you see it.
"This message was deleted" and just like that, your curiosity is sent into overdrive. What was the message? Was it an accidental text meant for someone else? A confession? An insult? A typo so embarrassing it had to be erased from existence? We may never know, and that’s the most annoying part.
Worst still if you are the sender and you do not want the person to know you messaged them. Like a red flag of desperation your embarrassment is there clear for all to see: "You deleted this message."
As it stands, the platform has no plans to remove the "you deleted this message" alert when someone uses the Delete for Everyone feature. That means you can delete your embarrassing messages all you want, but the person on the other end will still know you had something to hide.
One Reddit user wrote: “Why does it say “you deleted this message” when u delete it to everyone. If someone deletes a message from everyone that means they want it to be like they never sent that message. WHATS THE POINT IN MAKING IT CLEAR THAT SOMEONE DELETED A MESSAGE??“
Why does it say “you deleted this message” when u delete it to everyone.
byu/Not_4thena inwhatsapp
One confused user posted last year: "How do I remove 'you deleted this message' on WhatsApp? I have a colleague who has twice now sent me a couple of WhatsApp messages. I know what they are asking so I don't open them. 😐 Soon any trace of the messages has gone, even the 'you deleted this message' notification... How does she do it?"
For those suffering from what we’ll call Deleted Message Anxiety (or Need-to-Know-itis), this feature is pure torture. It leaves behind a trail of questions: What did they say? Was it juicy? Did they regret it? Did they mean to send it to someone else? The struggle is real.
Reddit users to the rescue. One user shared their solution: "You can set messages to auto disappear. In that case the chat history older than "x" time will auto delete."
How do I remove "you deleted this message" on WhatsApp
byu/libsmum inwhatsapp
But while WhatsApp keeps us on our toes, they are staying busy with updates. Take, for example, their latest innovation — voice message transcripts
Launched in November 2024 and now available for South Africans, this feature automatically converts voice notes into text. It’s supposed to be helpful for those who can’t listen to voice messages at the moment, but let’s be real — it also caters to those of us who would rather die than sit through a five-minute monologue about what happened at someone's cousin’s wedding.
Plus, if you’ve ever received a voice note that starts with, "Okay, so basically what happened was…," you already know you’re in for a 10-minute TED Talk with no clear point.
According to a study by “Otter.ai,” a voice transcription service, users reported saving an average of four hours per week by reading transcriptions instead of listening to lengthy voice messages. This trend reflects our growing preference for quick, digestible information over extended audio content.
The rise of digital communication has altered our expectations for how information is delivered. In an age where attention spans are shorter, the demand for quick and easily accessible content has intensified.
The transcriptions are processed directly on your device, meaning WhatsApp itself can’t read them (at least, that’s what they say).
If you want to enable the feature, just go to Settings- Chat - Voice message transcripts and turn it on. From there, you can long-press any voice message and tap Transcribe to see it in text form.
At least we can now get out of listening to unnecessarily long voice notes.