We’ve all made a mistake in our WhatsApp group messaging, a mistake that usually forces us to hit the Delete for Everyone button that we would otherwise avoid. Apart from the drama that a deleted message causes, this feature is quite important when it comes to resolving a situation where a message has been sent accidentally. However, deleting a message comes with its own set of privacy concerns and WhatsApp has addressed this with some watertight checks and balances. So, here’s everything you need to know about the Delete for Everyone feature on WhatsApp and how it works.

As the name suggests, Delete for Everyone is a delete option available for your messages in a WhatsApp group chat. Delete for Everyone allows a user to delete a message for the entire group, so that no one can see the message anymore. Previously, a user could delete messages sent by others in the group, but now this feature only works for the messages you have sent to others.

However, keep in mind that when you delete a message, all recipients of the message will be notified that you just deleted a message using a WhatsApp notification where the message previously appeared. So while there is a way to delete a message from everyone, you can’t hide the act of deleting it. All of these measures are in place to protect the privacy of the individuals and to keep all parties informed. To make sure the app is fair to all users, WhatsApp created Delete for Everyone which it did.

In 2017, when the Delete for Everyone feature was first introduced, it could only be used for 7 minutes, after which the option to delete a message for everyone automatically disappeared. Two years ago, WhatsApp increased the time to an hour to give users more time to take action on a message.