WhatsApp: Saving your pride one drunk message at a time

We’ve all been there. Two in the morning, stumbling home from the bar after “one quick drink” with your flat. In one hand a polystyrene container holding your takeaway (cheesy chips being the obvious choice) and in the other you clutch your phone. For some reason, the dark night sky and the liquid confidence embolden you. Typing out a quick message, you hit send. You smile at this new daring side to your personality; but before you can do a DiCaprio and very loudly tell the street you’re king of the world, you actually read what you’ve sent. Then you re-read it. Oh God. Fear strikes you: was it too much to tell your friend you loved them so much? Or maybe you messaged that cute guy/girl from your seminar telling them they’re “sooooooo hot xx”? Perhaps you went as far as to hit up your ex with anything from a casual “hey” to “I miss you, please take me back, I’ve changed”?

If you were using Facebook, Twitter or heaven forbid, actually texting someone, you have two options: accept the consequences, or immediately move to Peru to live as a goat, forever plagued by nightmares of app icons stabbing you in the back. But if you sent the dreaded message through WhatsApp, you might be in luck.

The popular messaging service is currently testing a ‘unsend’ feature in their WhatsApp Web beta, which gives users a five-minute window to edit and delete messages that are currently being sent.

The popular messaging service is currently testing a ‘unsend’ feature in their WhatsApp Web beta, which gives users a five-minute window to edit and delete messages that are currently being sent. It is not yet clear (please, Messaging Gods, make it so) if this will also extend to messages that have been delivered but not yet read. Originally called the ‘revoke message’ feature, there is no set date for its release. However, according to a tweet from the company it should be coming with the next iOS update later this year, with Android versions assumedly coming soon after.

This comes as alongside a host of less interesting but probably still useful changes to the popular app. Formatting text will soon have built in shortcuts, so if you didn’t know how to put lines through words or make a sentence bold to stand out, WhatsApp are finally catering for you. There are also rumours about possible location broadcasting, where the app will continually send your location to a friend until you find each other or one of you turns it off. Useful for re-uniting with your friends in the club, if they’re not too busy dancing with their course mate to check their phone.

Well, you still won’t be able to delete those risky messages the morning after, and you’ll have to live with the shame of wanting to send them in the first place.

What might this mean for us students? Well, you still won’t be able to delete those risky messages the morning after, and you’ll have to live with the shame of wanting to send them in the first place. But, if you’re quick you might be able stop anyone else reading them. While easier said than done, I still think simply refraining from drunk messaging might be a more fool proof way to avoid the embarrassment of the dreaded double blue ticks the next morning. Your call.