Do conversations remain after deleting a number from WhatsApp - briefly?
When you delete a contact or number from your WhatsApp contacts list, the conversation history with that person remains intact in your chat history. This means that all messages exchanged before deletion will still be accessible through the chat window associated with their phone number.
Do conversations remain after deleting a number from WhatsApp - in detail?
When you delete a contact or a number from your WhatsApp, the conversations associated with that particular contact do not disappear entirely. Instead, they are retained within the app's database but become inaccessible through the regular user interface. This means that while you cannot see these messages by navigating through your chat list or searching for the deleted contact, they remain stored on your device or in the cloud backup (if enabled).
To provide a more detailed explanation:
- Local Storage: If you have not backed up your chats to iCloud or Google Drive, all your messages are stored locally on your device. When you delete a contact, the conversation history linked to that contact number is still present in the app's local database. However, because the contact no longer exists in your address book, WhatsApp does not display these conversations in your chat list.
- Cloud Backup: If you have enabled cloud backup, all your chats are periodically backed up to iCloud (for iOS users) or Google Drive (for Android users). Even after deleting a contact, the associated conversation history remains in the cloud backup. This ensures that if you reinstall WhatsApp or switch devices, you can restore your chat history, including those with deleted contacts.
- Data Retention Policies: It's important to note that while WhatsApp retains your messages on their servers for a short period after sending (until the message is delivered and read by the recipient), they do not store your chat history indefinitely. Once a message is deleted from both the sender’s and recipient’s devices, it is no longer recoverable.
- Third-Party Access: Deleting a contact does not protect your conversations from being accessed by third parties who have physical access to your device or cloud storage. If someone gains unauthorized access to your WhatsApp data, they may still be able to retrieve and read the messages associated with deleted contacts.
In summary, while deleting a number from WhatsApp removes the contact from your address book and hides the conversation from view, the actual message history remains stored either locally on your device or in cloud backup (if enabled). For complete removal of conversation data, you would need to manually delete the messages associated with that contact before removing them from your contacts list.