The ‘Delete for Everyone’ feature offered by WhatsApp allows users to delete messages and files they sent accidentally. However, this feature does not work the same in iPhones and Android according to a researcher. This difference can put the privacy of the users at risk by letting some media files remain undeleted on the receiver’s iPhone.
This issue occurs when an iPhone user has turned on the option to save to the camera roll. Any media files sent to this person will remain even if the sender chooses to delete it later. This is applicable for group chats. Any files sent to users in the group should be deleted when the ‘Delete for Everyone’ option is used. However, if any user in the group has that save option enabled, the files won’t be deleted.
This issue does not affect media files sent to Android users. However, it can occur if an Android user sends media to an iPhone user with the save setting turned on.
WhatsApp has replied that this is not a security or a privacy issue. They have stated that the delete option is meant for deleting the sent messages and media. However, there is no guarantee that the files will be deleted permanently.