WhatsApp buffs its message deletion time to 4096 seconds

That awkward moment when you hit send and realise that sultry message you just drafted for your significant other is heading to your granny’s WhatsApp instead. If you noticed your error within seven minutes, you were able to delete it, and avoid an even more awkward conversation at the upcoming family reunion.

But WhatsApp is about to make your errant messages a little less permanent and family reunions a lot less avoidable.

According to an update sniffed out by WABetaInfo, the latest Android beta (version 2.18.69) allows users to delete messages up to 4096 seconds after you’ve sent it — that’s an hour, eight minutes and 16 seconds.

The Facebook-owned messaging service first debuted the “delete for everyone” feature late last year.

Deconstructing beta builds isn’t a surefire way of confirming forthcoming features, but it does give an indication of what experiments WhatsApp’s developers are running.

There’s no indication of when this particular beta build will make it to the stable channel on Google Play Store, and buffed message deletion time has yet to make its way to iOS.

H/T: WABetaInfo

Feature image: Andy Walker/Memeburn