WhatsApp update will allow you to redownload deleted messages and data
A new WhatsApp update will allow Android users to download previously deleted messages and data. Users were previously able to access undownloaded media for 30 days, allowing WhatsApp to delete the data from its servers once it had been downloaded. WhatsApp no longer deletes the content from its servers in the new update, meaning a user can continue to access it, according to WhatsApp-focused site WABetaInfo.
However, this only applies to WhatsApp running on Google’s Android operating system for smartphones and tablets, and not Apple’s iOS. The media files are still encrypted end-to-end, meaning only the sender and recipient are able to view what has been sent between them, with no third party intervention.
“We have successfully downloaded images and videos received 2 months ago on the 2.18.113 version (presenting an error, but after that the image was correctly downloaded), and 3 months ago (we had to try multiple times in order to successfully redownload it),” the site’s author found.
“With very old media (for example with images sent on last August 2017) it doesn’t seem possible, because WhatsApp asks us to request to the sender to send the media again in order to get it back.”
Retrieving data is only possible if the message itself was not deleted by the user, it found.
WhatsApp has more than 1.5bn monthly active users across the globe, sending 60bn messages each day.
Facebook purchased the app in 2014 for $19bn (£13.6bn), and updated WhatApp’s terms and conditions in August 2016 allowing businesses to send users messages and giving Facebook access to phone numbers to target users with tailored adverts.
WhatsApp signed an agreement last month not to share data with its parent firm after the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) declared the practice potentially illegal.
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