Sending photos on WhatsApp is now a widespread practice. However, the more photos you send, the higher the risk of making a mistake and sending a photo (or message) to the wrong person . The danger is around the corner. In the most serious cases, there is even the risk of sending a compromising photograph to the employer or to one’s boyfriend / girlfriend, especially when multiple images are sent at the same time to several people.

Fortunately, there is a solution. WhatsApp gives you 7 minutes to delete a sent message .

In these seven minutes, if you are lucky, your contact has not yet read the message (to understand it, just look at the ticks , if there is only one, they have not received it).

If, on the other hand, he has read the message, you can still delete it and make all traces of the conversation disappear.

In this guide I want to show you three possibilities:

1. Cancel sending a message before it is sent
2. Delete a sent message within 7 minutes
3. Delete a message after 7 minutes (interesting trick)

Let’s see them individually:

1. How to cancel sending a WhatsApp message before it is sent

To delete the message before it is sent, long click on the message and in the window that opens select the Delete option . Remember that this procedure is only effective if the message has not been marked as sent.

And what if I accidentally sent a photo (or video) to the wrong person? Well, even in this case you can back down, but you have to act quickly.

Cancel sending WhatsApp images? Act fast

WhatsApp takes a few seconds to load the multimedia contents (photos and videos) and these are the precious moments in which to act and cancel the sending. Here’s how to do it:

Turn off cellular data and wifi immediately. The fastest way is to activate airplane mode , which can be reached easily from the notification bar (on both iPhone and Android or other phone models).

After disconnecting the connection, a red exclamation mark will appear next to the message if you made it in time. This indicates that sending has been blocked.

The next step is to click on the image to bring up the drop-down menu and click on the delete option. Just another click and the file will be permanently deleted from WhatsApp , without anyone receiving it.

Remember, the secret is speed . For this it is good to keep in mind the fastest way to activate airplane mode on your phone. The method also works without closing the WhatsApp application, just disconnect from the Internet.

2. How to delete a message sent within 7 minutes

This function was introduced by WhatsApp in 2017. In practice, it allows you to delete a message sent, whether it has been received or not.

Before proceeding, check if you have updated WhatsApp to the latest version available .

To delete the message you have 7 minutes from the moment you send it.

To delete a WhatsApp message within 7 minutes you must:

• Open the WhatsApp chat and select the message you want to delete
• Long click on the message you want to delete (on iPhone) or on the trash can symbol (Android and others)
• Click on “Delete for all”

This way the message will disappear from the chat and neither you nor your contact will be able to see it.

NB When you delete a message, a box with the message “this message has been deleted” remains on the chat.

What if it’s been 7 minutes? There is a simple trick to use …

3. Delete a message after 7 minutes

This solution is as simple as it is effective. How to do? Just go “back in time”! In other words, by changing the time you can make WhatsApp believe that you have just sent the message and then you can delete it as explained in point 2.

Let’s explain better.

To delete a WhatsApp message after 7 minutes you must:

• Activate airplane mode on your phone to disconnect it from the internet
• Close the app permanently (not in the background)
• Open the phone settings and change the time back to 1 minute before the sending time of the message you want to delete
• Re-connect to the Internet
• Open the chat and delete the message as you would for a newly sent one