Latest Update: Whatsapp Group Admins can now delete messages of anyone

WhatsApp didn’t pioneer group chats, but it was instrumental in making them an essential part of our lives. The Meta-owned service has been about for over a decade, and group chats have been a WhatsApp feature since 2011. However, WhatsApp group admins don’t have much control over the chat itself in their WhatsApp group. To fix this, we learned that WhatsApp is beta testing robust controls so that administrators can delete messages sent by other members.

Presently WhatsApp group administrators can only remove members and control who joins, who can send messages in the group, and how disappearing notifications got configured in WhatsApp. Tools for moderating the activities in the chat are minimal, and it’s currently impossible to delete messages. Interestingly, the company is testing that same capability.

How to check if you have received this feature or not?

To check if you have received this new feature, go to any group you are a part of, and you must long-press on any message. You have received the feature if you see any option to delete the message. If not, the feature will roll out soon for beta users for now. WhatsApp is testing out its new feature with a handful of users first.

WABetaInfo reports showed the screenshots of the feature. There is a new “Delete message” option, and when you can click it, It will bring a pop-up saying, “As an admin, you are deleting the group message for everyone in this chat. The group members will see that you have deleted the message.” Once you go on and delete the message, it will show similar to deleted messages on WhatsApp currently.

Why this feature is introduced on Whatsapp?

WhatsApp isn’t introducing a new feature here. It is catching up to competitors’ feature-rich services such as Telegram and Discord. The feature is not even entirely new to WhatsApp itself. We saw this feature first in December and again in May during what seems like internal testing, and now it’s part of the public beta channel.

Reports suggested that the rollout will be painfully slow on the beta channel, and it could be a while before most WhatsApp users get this feature. If you are a WhatsApp beta user, you could see this feature show up in the upcoming weeks. Till then, you’ll have to let your group members off with warnings or directly show them the door to keep your group chats mannerly.

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