WhatsApp rolling out possibility to undo status updates for selected users

WhatsApp is rolling out the option to undo any update by users within the chat. This can be used to pull back or remove a status update from the conversation which may have been unintended or not highlighted properly.

Many users have criticised WhatsApp for adding this functionality, due to the problems it creates with communication patterns of both parties involved in the conversation.

Typically, the reaction of people with status updates is to angrily hijack their own messages, and tell other people not to read them. Some users can make permanent capital moves by just making a change to another user’s status update.

The main group of users who receive notifications every time a status update they have received gets inserted into the conversation is those who use WhatsApp for groups. An update is even slightly issued for the groups in which the group creator or administrator has been added to, without permission of the group’s owner or manager.

Every new group is auto-updated when the status update is published, by one of the admins. Most groups have pretty strict rules concerning the status updates, and not every group owner or manager sees the update as it is published. This can lead to people causing serious problems for others in the group.

It is very likely that Whatsapp staff are testing this feature out to make sure it is easily understood by its users.

This feature can be disabled or set to only be used when these admins or group owners have seen the update.

This means that WhatsApp users in one group will always be able to maintain their status updates and update their group quickly, with the capability to have these updates edited after being published or removed by using the unsubscribe button available in the chats.

Normally, a group owner or manager can only disable the post on several chats, it is as complicated as turning on an update to that group and uninstalling it before doing the same on others. This means that creating a number of status updates could get quite complicated for WhatsApp.

News and Events

WhatsApp Groups frequently provide a useful way to notify users of notifications in times of events and offers. It is very easy to reply to multiple notifications with one notification, and the notification and the reply become synchronized over various chats. This means that multiple messages can be shared within a single group, and not all updates would need to be disclosed to all chats in an investigation.

For more on Android devices or Android devices only, browse our help centre, which is filled with helpful information and guides.