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WhatsApp Message Delete Feature Reportedly Fixed to Prevent Exploits

WhatsApp Message Delete Feature Reportedly Fixed to Prevent Exploits

By Jagmeet Singh | Updated: 13 March 2018 14:00 IST

WhatsApp has plugged some of the gaps in Delete for Everyone feature with a new update

Highlights

WhatsApp has silently improved 'Delete for Everyone' feature
There is an upgraded algorithm to block revoke requests for some users
WhatsApp for iOS has extended the delete message feature

WhatsApp has silently improved the 'Delete for Everyone' feature with an ability to block revoke requests for some users. The new improvement emerges days after the WhatsApp beta for Android received an update to give users 4,096 seconds to delete a message - a substantial increase over the original seven-minute window. That 4,096-second limit had reportedly been exploited using a modded version of WhatsApp following its launch to delete messages that were even three years old. It had also been exploited to let anyone, not just the sender, delete messages.

The instant messaging app has now, therefore, added a 'Block revoke request' feature. WhatsApp for iPhone has also separately been updated with an extended Delete for Everyone limit to one hour, eight minutes, and 16 seconds.

As spotted by folks at WABetaInfo, WhatsApp has upgraded the algorithm it uses to pass the revoke request. Now, if the upgraded algorithm receives a revoke request, it checks its database for a message with the same ID, and then checks if the current date is less than 24 hours when when the message was sent, and only then proceeds to delete the message - using the same ID that had been generated previously. This makes the feature to delete message restricted to the official limit and doesn't allow any modded versions to extend the limit through an unofficial means.

That being said, WhatsApp for iPhone has officially been updated to version 2.18.31 with the same extension for the Delete for Everyone feature to one hour, eight minutes, and 16 seconds that we last saw in the beta. This notably gives a room for making temporary conversations on WhatsApp, similar to what has been offered by other compelling messaging apps.

You can visit Apple App Store to download the latest WhatsApp for iPhone. The new version additionally brings some bug fixes, as reported by WABetaInfo.

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