HIMANSHU GURU, OP
WhatsApp has introduced a new feature by which users can erase messages they have sent already. The user can delete messages up to seven minutes after dispatching them and these will then disappear from conversations or group chats. Youngsters are the top users of WhatsApp Messenger, a freeware and cross-platform instant messaging and Voice over IP (VOIP) service. Orissa POST talked to some young boys and girls to know their views on this latest development.
“I am happy that now I can revoke a WhatsApp message from the device of the receiver too. I can delete my mistakenly sent message within seven minutes. It is a great step. Often we hit the send button too soon and a particular message goes to a wrong person in the chat list. Especially during travelling I have experienced such a situation. Some of my messages are meant for my friends but sometimes they are sent to my parents by mistake. It can lead to embarrassing situations. But that problem is over,” says Smita Mallick, a student from Bhubaneswar.
Roshan, a software engineering student from Sambalpur, explains the practical disadvantage of this feature. He said, “To revoke a message, the user gets a new option after selecting ‘delete’, allowing him to delete for everyone instead of just from his own device. However, WhatsApp does warn that the recipients may still see the message before it is deleted or if the deletion was not successful. Besides, you will not get any notification that the message has been deleted from the device of the recipient. It is also possible that the recipient may see the messages in his chat window before they are deleted. Although this feature is a fine addition for messages sent by mistake, it is also true that it might not always work.”
“I find this an excellent feature since now I can delete a chat inadvertently sent to a girlfriend that was meant for another. Earlier, I have faced embarrassing situations when some of my messages were delivered to the wrong girl. I have lost a few friends because of this. Of course, some of my friends are always on WhatsApp. So the moment I send them a message they read it. In such cases, this feature is of no use. Once they read the message and get a wrong impression, there is no use deleting the same from their device,” comments a student from Berhampur, who chooses to remain anonymous.
However, Archita Panigrahi, a MBA student from Bhubaneswar, is very happy with this new feature. She says, “This should have been introduced much earlier. WhatsApp has become so popular that today no youngster can think of a life without it. Earlier, we had to pay for sending messages. But with WhatsApp, we can now chat as much as we want free of cost. Of course, you do need an internet connection in your mobile phone always to avail such facilities. So, in a way we are paying indirectly for the messages. All the same, this new feature will come in handy. I believe we can avoid a lot of miscommunication, provided it works properly.”
