This message usually occurs when you reinstall WhatsApp on your phone, change your phone number on WhatsApp, or move your WhatsApp account from one phone to another. In all these cases, you need to take a backup of your chats and then restore them back again.
Here we have discussed how you can get this error fixed quickly and retrieve the messages that were sent to you from the sender. Let’s first discuss about the reason why this “Waiting for this message. This may take a while.” message appears in your WhatsApp chats.
Why WhatsApp shows “waiting for this message”
This message occurs because of WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption. It is a security feature in WhatsApp which encrypts your messages so that only you and the person you are chatting with can see them, and nobody else. Here’s how it works –
The message you send on WhatsApp isn’t transferred directly in a plain text. First, it is encrypted on your device and secured with a lock. When the message reaches to the receiver’s device, it is decrypted with a special key.
As only the recipient has this special key to unlock the message, so no one can read your messages in-between. It works the same way as SSL certificate encryption works on HTTPS enabled websites. The end-to-end encryption feature on WhatsApp is enabled by default and you can’t turn it off.
When you restore a backup on WhatsApp (for example, after reinstalling WhatsApp on your phone), WhatsApp won’t be able to verify the end-to-end encryption of your messages and that’s why it shows “Waiting for this message. This may take a while.” message.
Read messages showing “Waiting for this message”
Here we have shared some methods that can help you to read messages on WhatsApp showing “Waiting for this message”.
- Check your internet connection – When you restore a backup on WhatsApp, it needs a good internet connection to fetch the new messages you have recieved while you were off. So make sure that your internet speed is high enough.
- Wait for some time – WhatsApp will take some time to verify the end-to-end encryption with the sender whose messages you want to read. This depends on when the sender will come online and open WhatsApp on their phone.
The same is in case of WhatsApp group chats. To verify that the message is encrypted and it is for you, the sender needs to be online on WhatsApp. Until it’s not verified, you will see “Waiting for this message” in place of what the sender has sent to you.
- Ask your friend to come online – If you want to read the messages quickly, the only way out there is to ask the sender to come online and open WhatsApp on their phone. Once WhatsApp has established and confirmed the end-to-end encryption, you will be able to chat with the person without any interruptions.
So that’s how you can fix the “Waiting for this message. This may take a while” error on WhatsApp and read your messages quickly. We hope you find this tutorial helpful. If you want to ask something, feel free to share it in the comment section below.
Vivek ChaudharyVerified AuthorThis author is verified as a trusted expert and senior writer. A formal process has been completed to confirm their identity and qualifications.
