They "catch" the message the moment it arrives and save a copy in their own database.
If you have Android 11 or newer, you can often view deleted texts without any extra apps. Go to Settings > Notifications > Notification History . Toggle it On to see a log of incoming messages. whatsdelete-view-deleted-messages
Follow the setup prompts and select Restore Chat History . They "catch" the message the moment it arrives
Ensure you have a backup that was created after the message arrived but before it was deleted. Toggle it On to see a log of incoming messages
iOS has stricter privacy rules, making it harder to "intercept" notifications.
To view messages that a sender has deleted on WhatsApp, you generally have to rely on logs that captured the message before it was removed. While WhatsApp does not have an official "undelete" feature, several workarounds exist depending on your device. 📱 Android Methods