Telegram has had it for as long as I can remember and now WhatsApp wants to give them a try. I am talking about disappearing messages that self-destruct after sometime unlike the messages that users can send and receive right now.
WhatsApp has been working on this feature for a few months and is now ready to roll it out. The Facebook-owned company has announced that this feature is officially coming to the messaging platform. WhatsApp also took this opportunity to share some information about this feature and how it will work.
WhatsApp will not enable the disappearing option for each individual message but would rather have it for the whole chat. This will be the case for both individual and group chats. The messages will disappear after 7 days if you choose to enable this feature. There is no way to change this interval to a shorter time period for reasons unknown to us.
How Disappearing Messages on WhatsApp Will Work
- If a user doesn’t open WhatsApp in the seven day period, the message will disappear. However, the preview of the message might still be displayed in notifications until WhatsApp is opened.
- When you reply to a message, the initial message is quoted. If you reply to a disappearing message, the quoted text might remain in the chat after seven days.
- If a disappearing message is forwarded to a chat with disappearing messages off, the message won’t disappear in the forwarded chat.
- If a user creates a backup before a message disappears, the disappearing message will be included in the backup. Disappearing messages will be deleted when a user restores from a backup.
- WhatsApp recommends users to use this feature with trusted individuals as:
The recipient might forward or take a screenshot of a disappearing message and save it before it disappears.
- The recipient might copy and save content from the disappearing message before it disappears.
- The recipient might take a photo of a disappearing message with a camera or other device before it disappears.
Now Read: WhatsApp Adds an Option for Muting Contacts or Groups Forever
