What will happen if you clear the WhatsApp history - briefly?
Clearing your WhatsApp history will delete all messages and media from your device, but it won't affect the data stored on the servers or the chats of other participants in the conversation. Your contacts will still be able to see their copies of the messages in their chat history.
What will happen if you clear the WhatsApp history - in detail?
If you decide to clear the WhatsApp history, several changes and consequences will occur. Firstly, your chat history will be permanently deleted from your device. This includes all messages, photos, videos, links, and any other media shared within the conversations. It is important to note that this action only removes data locally on your phone; it does not affect the server-side storage of WhatsApp messages.
Secondly, clearing the chat history will free up storage space on your device. Over time, accumulated messages and media can consume a significant amount of memory, which can impact the performance of your smartphone. By deleting this data, you can potentially improve the speed and overall functionality of your device.
Thirdly, after clearing the chat history, any unread messages will be marked as read automatically. This means that if there were any new messages in your chats, they would no longer appear with a blue dot or badge notification indicating that they are unread.
Fourthly, group chat settings will revert to their default state. This includes the notification settings for each group, which may need to be adjusted again according to your preferences. Additionally, any pinned chats will also be unpinned, and you might have to re-pin important conversations if needed.
Fifthly, clearing the chat history does not affect the media stored in your phone's gallery. Photos and videos sent or received via WhatsApp are typically saved in your device's local storage as well, and these will remain unaffected by this action. However, any media that was only available within the WhatsApp chat (and not downloaded to your device) will be lost.
Lastly, it is crucial to understand that once you clear the chat history, there is no way to recover the deleted data unless you have previously backed up your chats. WhatsApp offers a backup feature that allows you to save your chat history to Google Drive or iCloud, depending on whether you are using an Android or iOS device. If you have enabled this feature, you can restore your conversations from the backup after clearing the history.
In conclusion, while clearing the WhatsApp history can help manage storage space and improve device performance, it is a irreversible action that should be considered carefully. Ensuring that important chats are backed up beforehand can prevent any loss of valuable data.