How to read a deleted message on WhatsApp

Through some Android apps, it is possible to cheat message deletion on WhatsApp by entering inside the notification center

Recently, WhatsApp offered a new feature for its users. A service that allows people to delete an accidentally sent message within seven minutes. Some computer experts, however, have realized that there is a method to get around this block and still be able to view a deleted message.

When a person deletes a conversation before the recipient can read the message, the recipient will be notified with a notification that the text sent to him has been deleted. In no way he will be able to read it. Or so it should be. In fact, on Android all incoming messages on WhatsApp are saved in the notification system. Just go into the internal log of the device to find the complete deleted message. To find this particular archive and read the deleted conversation, all you need to do is download a third-party application like Notification History.

Add Notification Log Widget

The editors of the online magazine Android Jefe noticed that by going through the details of deleted Android notifications, you can retrieve the text of the deleted WhatsApp message before we could read it. To do so, we'll simply add the Notification Log widget to the screen and launch it whenever the messaging app notifies us of a deleted message.

Press on an empty portion of the screen (where there are no icons, to be clear) and add a new widget. Scroll down the list until you find the Settings item (recognizable by the gear icon) and drag it to the desktop: this will open the  "Quick Shortcut Settings" list, from which you can choose the Notification Log option.

After you finish adding the widget, just press on the icon that appeared on the screen to see the list of the latest deleted notifications: the one related to the deleted message should also appear here. At this point, just select it to access the details, where you'll find the text of the message in question.

The procedure just described, however, has a limitation: it only works with absolute certainty on a stock Android device (Pixel, Nexus and Motorola) or Pure Android (Nokia). In other cases, the smartphone manufacturer might have removed the "Notification Log" item from the widget list. Should you find yourself in this situation, you still have two tricks up your sleeve to play.

Notification History

Apps like Notification History can be used not only for this little "trick" that allows us to read deleted messages on WhatsApp but also to go back and review old messages from conversations we've deleted. To use Notification History we'll need to have a smartphone with Android 6.0 or higher. To download the app just go to the Google Play Store and type Notification History in the search bar. Once the installation process is complete, we launch the service and enter the notification log of our smartphone.

Nova Launcher

If we use Nova Launcher we don't need to install Notification History. As seen for devices with stock Android, Nova also allows you to add the widget to access the Notification Log: just follow the procedure seen above (in this case, it will work with any Android smartphone, regardless of manufacturer) and you're done.

Limitations to the service

However, there are some limitations to the Notification Log as well. For example, we can only view a message if we received the notification at the time it was received. This means that if we had the Internet turned off when the message was sent, the text will not be saved in the notification center. If, on the other hand, we have deleted the message preview, the full text will still be saved. Only the first 100 characters of a text are saved in the notification log. This means that you won't be able to fully read longer conversations. With this system you can recover only messages and not photos or videos.