How To Retrieve Deleted WhatsApp Messages On Android And iOS

How To Retrieve Deleted WhatsApp Messages On Android And iOS

Living in a generation that lives and breathes social media, the FOMO (fear of missing out) is real! And when one of your friends sneakily deletes a chunk of messages in the middle of an intense conversation, before you manage to read them, your curiosity gets 1000x. When it comes to WhatsApp, the platform introduced the ‘delete for everyone’ feature in 2017, allowing users to delete messages within two days of sending them. While this feature is a true life-saver when you become a victim of typos and more, it can also leave you frustrated. Also, unlike Instagram or other apps, WhatsApp isn’t very subtle with the deletion of messages, displaying a loud and clear prompt about each text that the sender has wiped off. If you’re looking for ways to retrieve deleted messages on WhatsApp, we’ve got you covered!

WhatsApp doesn’t have an in-built feature, but there are a few workarounds that would provide you with insights into how to read deleted WhatsApp messages for both Android and iPhone users. Keep reading.

How to retrieve deleted WhatsApp messages on Android?

Image credit: Christian Wiediger/ Unsplash

Through Android notification history

When you receive a WhatsApp text from someone, your phone displays it via the drop-down notification feature. This is exactly what will aid you in checking the recently deleted texts. Just make sure that your Android smartphone is running the Android 11 operating system or above to make it work. Follow these steps to set up the notification history option on your device:

• On your device, go to the ‘Settings’ and open the ‘Apps & Notification’ tab.
• Tap the ‘Notifications’ option and choose ‘Notification history’. Toggle the button next to ‘Use notification history’.
• After this, all your future notifications, including those deleted by the sender, will appear on the page you’ve been redirected to.

Make sure that the ‘Notification History’ option is on for WhatsApp in your Settings. Please note that this method only works on Android devices and doesn’t let you retrieve deleted media files.

Through WhatsApp chat backup

Restore the chat backup of WhatsApp and you’ll get to know all the recent messages. Here’s a step-by-step process to restore the backup:

• Uninstall and then reinstall WhatsApp using your mobile number.
• Once the verification of your number is done, WhatsApp will ask to restore your messages, provided there’s a backup on Google Drive or other cloud storage providers.
• Select ‘Restore’. After the process is complete, all your deleted chats will be on display.

Please keep in mind that you must have a backup of your chats and conversations, failing which you won’t be able to restore anything.

Through a third-party app

If your device isn’t running on Android 11 or a later version, third-party apps are your saviour. There are plenty of such apps including Notisave, Get Deleted Messages and more that keep track of the phone’s notifications. Also, these only work on Android devices. Before downloading third-party apps, just know that they aren’t supported by WhatsApp as they might jeopardise your vital information. If you’re not TOO keen on viewing the deleted texts, better skip this option. But if you’ve turned your Sherlock mode on and will do anything it takes to read those texts, follow these steps:

• Download any of the aforementioned apps from the Google Play Store.
• Log into it. Follow the instructions and the deleted messages will be on display.

Please note that you won’t be able to view the deleted images, videos, GIFs, and other such media files.

How to retrieve deleted WhatsApp messages on iPhone

Through iCloud backup

If you’ve backed up your WhatsApp messages to iCloud, retrieving deleted messages won’t be a lot of hassle. Your WhatsApp should be synced to iCloud so that it has a backup of your messages. Here’s how to see deleted WhatsApp messages on your iPhone:

• Uninstall and re-install WhatsApp on your device using the same number.
• During the login process, select the option to restore your WhatsApp backup from iCloud.
• Once the backup is restored, you can view deleted chats from the specific conversations.

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(Hero image credit: Freepik)

(Feature image credit: Storyset/ Freepik)

This article first appeared on Lifestyle Asia Hong Kong

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

• Can I see deleted WhatsApp messages?

WhatsApp doesn’t have an in-built feature to see deleted messages, but there are a few workarounds to help you with it.

• How do I recover deleted WhatsApp messages?

For Android devices, you can recover deleted messages using third-party apps or Android notification history. For iPhone, you can get it via iCloud backup.

• Are messages permanently deleted on WhatsApp?

If you use the ‘delete or everyone’ feature on WhatsApp, then the messages will be deleted from your and the recipient’s chat.

• Which is the best app to read deleted WhatsApp messages?

Notisave, and Get Deleted Messages are some of the apps used to read deleted WhatsApp messages.