Most Ugandans use WhatsApp as the instant messenger of choice to communicate to their loved ones. With WhatsApp, you can send text, photos, audio, GIF and even share your live location. There is just so much you can use this darling app for. But sometimes during this addictive use, you will (or must have) noticed that some messages will flash “Waiting for this message. This might take a while” instead of the actual message that was sent to you. This makes you restless and the continuity of the conversation is cut short, well because you can’t reply to what you haven’t seen.
But why does this happen?
This occurs when the contact you were chatting with or yourself, recently reinstalled WhatsApp. It happens because WhatsApp Inc incorporated end-to-end encryption in WhatsApp.
End-to-end encryption was introduced by WhatsApp because of the fact that humans are so mindful about their privacy and security –and it’s obviously humans using the app of course. This however is available when both you and your contact are on the latest versions of WhatsApp.
WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption ensures only you and the person you’re communicating with can read what is sent, and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp. Your messages are secured with a lock, and only the recipient and you have the special key needed to unlock and read your message. There is no special way to turn end-to-end encryption on. It is always activated, provided all parties are using the latest version of WhatsApp. There is no way to turn off end-to-end encryption –who would take down their bathroom curtains when taking a shower anyways?
So how do you read messages showing “Waiting for this message”?
Due to end-to-end encryption, you are required to wait for someone’s phone to come online and properly encrypt the message for you. WhatsApp doesn’t want to snoop around. It’s a good thing if you mind about your own privacy. To speed up this process, ask the person you’re messaging to go online and open WhatsApp on their phone. And “adakhadabra”, your messages that were formerly showing “waiting for this message” will be visible and you’ll be able to reply and keep the conversation going.
For more WhatsApp tricks, check out our video tutorial below for more WhatsApp tricks that you should be using.
