WhatsApp for Android has added a new feature in its latest updates. The messenger has introduced a feature that lets users download deleted media files from chat. Until now, if users deleted files sent over WhatsApp from the smartphone, they were not able to download it anymore. But from now on the messaging app will allow you to download deleted media files as well.

As per the report from WABetaInfo, the feature was introduced in WhatsApp‘s updates between version 2.18.106 and 2.18.110. The report suggests that WhatsApp now allows users to download deleted media such as images, videos, GIFs, voice messages, and docs, from the chat session again. However, the app does not let download media files that are too old, instead, it asks to send a request to the sender to it again.

How to download deleted media from chat

If you have deleted the downloaded media content from the phone’s storage, you can go back to the chat conversation on WhatsApp. Once you find the media, just tap on it and it will be downloaded again. It is worth noting that if you delete a media file from your smartphone, you need to have the message where the sender sent you the specific file to be able to download it again.

Interestingly, the new WhatsApp feature also means that the messenger stores user data on its servers even after the files have been downloaded. Earlier, WhatsApp stored only un-downloaded media that too for 30 days and used to delete it from the server once the user downloaded it. Now, WhatsApp does not seem to delete the data from the server so that users can download it again.

This new WhatsApp feature comes amid recent outrage over data leak by Facebook. However, WhatsApp had recently announced that their data and chats are secured with end-to-end encryption and nobody can read messages and listen to calls.