Here’s my take on this, as it’s a common issue with a few potential solutions.
The most reliable method, short of a cloud backup, is often the local backup file that WhatsApp automatically creates on your device. It usually saves one from the last 24 hours. You could try uninstalling and reinstalling WhatsApp; it should then prompt you to restore from a backup and might find the local file.
Another route is third-party data recovery software. The main pro is that these tools can sometimes scan your phone’s storage for deleted data fragments. However, the con is that their success rate is mixed on newer Android versions due to enhanced security and encryption. You have to weigh the potential reward against the uncertainty.
Looking forward, this is where monitoring apps can be useful. They don’t recover past messages, but they create a separate log of communications, ensuring you always have a copy safe from accidental deletion.