After Facebook acquired Whatsapp, we have been seeing a lot of changes being implemented in the messaging app. Whatsapp has gained a lot of features in the recent past including UPI based payments. While the feature is still in beta, it might make it to the stable version soon. Since the last few days, Whatsapp has been allowing some beta users to download deleted media again from their servers. Whatsapp stores any media exchanged on their servers thus allowing users to download them again if they have been deleted. Earlier the media shared with users came with a time limit of 30 days. The downloaded media was available for 30 days and as soon as the user downloaded the media, it was deleted from WhatsApp servers.
Whatsapp plans to modify the behaviour:
Now if you have downloaded the media, it will remain available on the WhatsApp servers for 3 months. This basically translates into a feature that will allow users to re-download media files even if you have deleted them from your device. In order to retrieve the media, it is very important that the particular message has not been deleted. Otherwise, it would not be possible to download that media again. Media older than 3 months can be downloaded only if the sender sends them back again. The media files on the WhatsApp servers are encrypted, as long as this statement holds true, users need not worry about their data.
The feature is currently available for users using Whatsapp beta version 2.18.113. The feature as of now has only been rolled out for Android users. There is no word on the iOS roll-out but the feature is expected to be out soon. The new feature certainly seems promising and useful. So, you can finally say goodbye to erroneously deleted Whatsapp media files as you can get them back easily.
