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Have you ever spent hours agonising over that important chat you deleted on WhatsApp? We have all been in that situation and have eventually regretted that inadvertent action. WhatsApp already offers two options if you want to delete the message but there is no easy method to recover that. Things turn worse if you have deleted an entire chat. While this is for the sender and recipient both, the Delete for Everyone option won’t make the message accessible on the recipient’s end.
Well, while WhatsApp does not let you recover the chat, there is a workaround that will make sure you can at least get a hold of the recent chats. There are two ways to read the deleted messages but none of them actually guarantees that you will be able to read all the messages or the particular message you had deleted. This is because of the certain limitations that cannot be averted, no matter what third-party app you use. WhatsApp does not recommend installing third-party apps and giving them access to your data, so it is highly advised to read the privacy policy of the app. While this applicable for one workaround, the other one does not require installing any app.
As noted by a Spanish blog Android Jefe, WhatsApp chat notifications are logged in your phone’s memory and can be accessed until the device restarts. The post says that the recipient can access the deleted messages, even if the sender has deleted them for both. This isn’t an exploit, rather it is a workaround that utilises your Android device’s properties to ensure you get a hold of the deleted messages.
Let’s quickly jump to how you can read the deleted messages
Step 1 – Go to Google Play store and install an app called Notification History. Run it and give it all the required permissions to access your device’s system settings.
Step 2 – Now, you can search the message in the notification log for the WhatsApp message. This is essentially a log of all the notifications that you receive on your phone. You’ll have to segregate the ones received on WhatsApp.
Step 3 – That’s it. You can use the settings available on launchers such as Nova Launcher. However, some Android phones allow you to check the notification log.
It is noteworthy that you can only check only those WhatsApp notifications that have not been attended. This means the WhatsApp notification that you have either swiped or cleared won’t be shown in the log. While this can be one of the limitations of this method, it isn’t actually one because swiping a notification means you have seen it, at least partially.
Coming to the second method which is applicable only for the sender, and maybe for the receiver if the message has not been deleted by the sender. For this, you have to make sure you have turned on chat backup on WhatsApp. Usually, WhatsApp begins the backup process during the night, so all the chats before this time are saved in the local memory, as well as in your Google Drive. Now, if you have accidentally deleted a chat or a chat message, you can restore the chats from either of the storage options.
To do that, uninstall WhatsApp on your phone – you can also go into the dual mode to create an instance of the app. The latter is available on a large range of smartphones as they support creating a duplicate of any app. The idea is to start from the scratch so that you can restore chats.
Now, after freshening the WhatsApp, you need to enter your mobile number, followed by the OTP you received and the passcode you use for two-factor authentication if any. The next screen on the app will ask you to choose to restore the chats. Tapping on the Restore button will begin the process from the local memory and your Google account simultaneously. After this is done and you reach the chat screen, you can jump to the particular chat to read the message.
That’s it. These two methods can make you read the messages that you didn’t intend to delete. If you know any other methods to recover the deleted messages, sound off in the comments section below.
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