Like more than a billion people around the world, you probably rely on WhatsApp for your daily chats. The Meta-owned app has long replaced traditional SMS for most of us, offering messaging, voice, and video calls, GIFs, stickers, photos, and videos. It even gives instant users the ability to delete messages they sent in a hurry, which can be rather convenient – unless you’re on the receiving end and miss out on the content.

The simple method to recover deleted messages

WhatsApp lets you remove a message for everyone in the chat, whether the recipient has seen it or not. There’s also a disappearing mode, much like Snapchat, where chats automatically vanish after a set time. But if you want to read a standard message that was deleted before you could open it, there is a clever solution.

On Android, an app called WAMR – Recover Deleted Messages & Status has been downloaded over 50 million times and does precisely what it promises. Using it is straightforward. First, download the app from the Play Store. Then grant the necessary permissions, enable the “Notification Reading Active” option, and wait. When a contact deletes a message, WAMR captures it from your notification history and immediately shows you the message that was removed.

What you need to know before using it

Because WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted, third-party apps cannot access them directly. WAMR works by saving the content of notifications, which is why it only works if you had notifications enabled when the message arrived.

There are a few caveats. The app requires broad permissions, including access to storage, media files, and Wi-Fi information. While WAMR is not considered unsafe, any app that monitors your notifications and storage can raise privacy concerns. It also includes ads and optional in-app purchases.

So yes, you can satisfy your curiosity the next time a message disappears, but remember that convenience comes with a pinch of caution.