New Delhi: A few weeks back, Whatsapp released its new feature where a user could delete messages for all recipients. Once the user deletes a message, the text on the recipient's chat was replaced with "This message was deleted".

The catch of the feature is that you need to do all this within a span of 7 minutes. If your fingers don’t work that swiftly and after seven minutes you still plan on deleting a message, then you would be out of luck.

This problem was solved in a blog named androidjefe, where a Spanish blogger Santiago S. claims that deleted messages are present in the notification log of the device and therefore can be read through these ways.

First, you will have to download an application named ‘Notification History [4.3+]’ from the Google’s app store. This application claims it to be a shortcut for opening the notification registry. You will need at least 6 or 7 android version for using this application.

Once you have downloaded the app, go to the notification log that says name of the WhatsApp message.

For those using the Nova launcher, the notification log can be accessed without the need of a third party application. You have to long press the empty area of the home screen, then follow these steps- Widgets > Activities > Settings > Notification log. A widget of the same will be created on the home screen and then you would be able to access the system's notification log.

  • On a stock Android phone


In a stock android Smartphone, a settings widget (added to the home screen) will give access to the notification log.

Limitations –

  • Only messages that have been seen or interacted with will be retrieved.

  • Approximately, only the first 100 characters of the deleted message will be visible.

  • If a phone is restarted, then all the logs will be deleted.

  • This works if and only if the message generated a notification on the phone

  • Only the text of a messages can be recovered