On LinkedIn, I saw a post that summed up two WhatsApp issues:

1. Showing “This message was deleted” (aka ‘Delete receipt’)

2. “DELETE FOR ME”

I have previously shared the exact sentiment of the post. Basically, a “DELETE” button should delete for all users, erase the data and hide the bodies. I was surprised by replies that came to defend the Delete Receipt:

The users know something was said, even if the author chose the “DELETE FOR EVERYONE” option. It let’s the users know, ‘something was written, deleted and now we are marking the author’s shame for everyone to see!’ Another “reverse-stet mark” defender wrote,

Fine. If you read the message then see it’s deleted, you don’t want to be gaslit. We need the app to tell us, ‘Yes, you did see the message. Shame the author! Shame! Shame! Shame!’

I did not see defense over “DELETE FOR ME.” Nobody likes it. It’s like having a switch to turn on/off your lightbulbs next to a switch to unleash wasps into your home. Even if there is a defense of the “wasp unleashing feature” you have to admit it’s too close to the more commonly used feature.

This raises a quote often pondered upon:

Products aren’t made to tell a story, just like offices should not “feel like family.” Products are made to provide a benefit to your life. They fix problems. You can write a story, but who wants to hear ‘The Tale of Toilet Paper and how we cleaned our butts before’? Products can be designed to create ease or entertainment too. To that, you might make a story out of a product, like “The Teddy Bear that came to life!” But everyone is entitled to their own story. [ADD side note: Offices should feel like places you go to develop your career path, learn, provide something to world if possible. It’s great if you are friendly with coworkers. But unlike family, there is some choice in your coworkers. And they dont owe you birthday wishes… though they may feel more obligated to give them than anyone.]

The stories I made up were like, “The boss got tired of pretending he received messages, so we built him a feature to gaslight people that he never got the messages.” Another story, “The boss suspected his wife was cheating. So we built him a feature to see if she deletes messages with Tony, their handsome poolboy.”

I see these features as an emphasis on outlying cases rather than use case. They are anti-democratic. The standard use is, ‘Someone wants to delete something because of a typo, regret or change to the original message(s).’ This is basic. Why shame someone who deleted a message, probably in the hope of making the recipients more comfortable with the final text? The “delete” button is no accident. It is a genuine feature that anyone would know is necessary, and acts a certain way. The two other features built ontop of “delete” are the edge cases. We need to think why users wanted it. And I just can’t imagine most people wanted it.

Upon extensive thinking, here are all the reasons I thought a user might “DELETE FOR ME”. They are not reasons I relate to. I’m including subpoints of why that is.

1. “Sparknotes” — You have extra messages, maybe media, and dont want to see it all on your end.

   1. People should have parallel conversations. If you need abridged notes, move the relevant text to another app that is made for record keeping. I use my phone’s built in notes app.

2. OCD— Example: You get daily cooking recipes, but dont like most. So instead of just copying the ones you do like to another page, you keep deleting bad recipes.

   1. It’s near identical to point 1. Arguably, deleting each messsage is to make a sparknotes. But I see this as more of an OCD, because you’re losing so much time obsessively deleting extra messages. It saves you time in the long run to avoid OCD behavior.

3. Hiding something from someone snooping on your phone — Ex: A bad husband sends nudes to their mistress, then deletes them in case his wife looks at his phone. He still wants her to have the lewd pics. (A less risque example would be a surprise party)

   1. Again, the text or media can just be moved to another app!

4. Low memory on phone — WhatsApp backs up your texts, and you dont have the space for it.

   1. WhatsApp has real issues with taking up memory. I have no clue why it downloads each media item. But deleting messages one by one is by far the worst way to lesson the problem.

And here are the more relatable reasons I thought of for leaving the ‘delete receipt’ (“This message was deleted”) text:

1. Shaming the sender!

2. Feeling anxiety over something you didn’t get to read, before it was deleted

3. Reminding you that nothing lasts forever

[Naturally, you can “Delete for me” any message, but can only “Delete for everyone” your own messages. This makes sense. You don’t want a random conversation participant to get to delete YOUR messages. But you can make a mistake and delete your own.]

What I’m pointing to is that these WhatsApp features look like bugs to me. But they persist. And WhatsApp is a big company, hopefully making decisions based on metrics. So there is an evolutionary reason for keeping it.

My thoughts are that WhatsApp should emphasize their “Star” button, which is rarely used. Users dont know they can highlight a message, star it, and at any time receive a list of starred messages by clicking on the convo header. This is useful for saving relevant info, like your favorite recipe on a long list of them. Or more common, star the address and entry code for a friend’s party. This emphasis could be done through new features, like a prettier page for the “Starred items” that guides users to turn this long conversations into beautiful notes.

Second, WhatsApp should make it easier to save space on your phone. This should be done through settings. Both Instagram and Snapchat offer a common feature to temporarily download media. And to be honest, I generally like seeing the cute family and animal pics I receive for about a week, maybe two, before my brain deletes memory of them to keep space for the various Pokemon names I need. So why not let media self destruct (delete) after 2 weeks? Seems reasonable. We can always go back and download it.

Which leads to the final point, apps work best when used with other apps. Maybe starred messages can be sent to an app for note taking. After all, you might have recipes being sent from multiple conversations, but only want one cook book. You might want a list of your friend’s addresses and door codes to have extra security. You might want to edit pics with an HDR filter — the only filter I ever use — or add music, rather than WhatsApp’s minimal editing features. So ultimately, one of the best features is integration with other apps.

This is all subjective. I think most would agree “DELETE FOR ME” can cause just as many unwanted behaviors as features. Like, whatever you do, just dont use this feature if you want to “DELETE FOR EVERYONE”! It’s a huge fear, that likely prompted the OP on LinkedIn. I’d also wager people are OK with the ‘delete receipt’ and adjacent bit of embarassment when they need to own up, “Yes, I erred! I deleted a message!” It’s the online version of “Did you say something?” or “What did you say?” followed by a sometimes disingenuous, “Nothing” or “Nevermind. It’s not important.”

To pretend like there was a point to this rant, let’s talk about the concept that we, life in general, are just a collection of bugs turned into features. Evolutionary speaking, this is close to true. A random RNA mutation causes better dexterity. More commonly, new microbes interact with our immune system and allow us to live. [I am forgetting my “I Contain Multitudes” by Ed Young learnings :( Maybe I’ll have to go back to this later]

Comment what you think about deleting messages on your chats! Do you also fear pressing “DELETE FOR ME” whenever you make a neurotic rant you later decide was not necessary, or do you love ranting so much you made a blog for it?