What happens if you delete the WhatsApp app from your phone - briefly?
If you delete the WhatsApp app from your phone, all of your chat history and media will remain stored on your device, but you won't be able to access them through the app. However, if you reinstall the app later, your chats and media should be restored automatically as long as you use the same phone number.
What happens if you delete the WhatsApp app from your phone - in detail?
If you decide to delete the WhatsApp application from your phone, several changes and considerations will come into play. Firstly, it's important to understand that deleting the WhatsApp app itself does not remove your account or data from WhatsApp servers. Your chat history, media, and contacts remain stored on the cloud until you explicitly choose to delete them.
Once you delete the app, you will no longer have access to any new messages sent to you after the deletion. However, if someone sends a message to your number while the app is deleted, the message will still be stored in WhatsApp's servers and will be delivered once you reinstall the app and log back into your account.
If you had enabled backup features before deleting the app, all your data—including chat history, photos, videos, and voice messages—will be backed up to either Google Drive (for Android users) or iCloud (for iOS users). This ensures that when you reinstall WhatsApp, you can restore your conversations and media from the backup.
Moreover, deleting the app does not affect your presence on group chats. You will still appear in the participant list of groups you were part of before deletion, but you won't be able to see or participate in ongoing conversations until you reinstall WhatsApp.
It is also worth noting that if you have set up WhatsApp Web on your computer, it will become inactive once you delete the app from your phone. You will need to scan a QR code using your phone's camera to reactivate WhatsApp Web after reinstalling the application.
Lastly, deleting the WhatsApp app does not deactivate your account or remove your profile picture, "About" information, groups you created, or broadcast lists. These elements remain until you decide to manually delete them from within the app once it's reinstalled.