In the messaging industry, self-destructing secret messages are now a trend. Started by Snapchat, the trend has been followed by almost every popular messaging app and social media networks.
From Google's Allo with private conversation to Instagram's ephemeral stories and so forth, Viber also wants to join the hype.
An update to Viber introduces Secret Messages that allow users to set a time limit after choosing a photo or video to send to recipient. By tapping on the pencil icon, users can add a caption to then set a timer by tapping the timer icon that is located at the bottom-left of the screen. Here, users can choose between 1, 3, 7 or 10 seconds of elapsed time.
Once a file that has been set with a timer is sent, it becomes blurry on both the sender and the recipient. When the recipient opens the file, the timer that has been previously set starts. And when the timer ends, the file will disappear from the chat thread.
The recipient will be left with no trace. But for the sender, Viber provides an indication of when the Secret Message was sent.
Viber wrote on its blog that the Secret Messages feature gives users the capacity to make their "conversations more meaningful by choosing what stays and what goes."
The company stated that this will be advantageous to users because they are now in full control of their content. They can take part in deciding what should or should not be part of their conversation history with other people.
"Some things are meant to be seen once and then never again," pointed Viber in the blog post.
The feature was first announced by Viber on January 31, 2017, but the company had it rolled out on February 1 for both Android and iOS users.
Other features included on the update are: the ability to clear chat history in a conversation and instant video messages by tapping and holding the instant video icon.