Not all messages are created equal. While some should last for eternity, some should disappear a lot sooner.
WhatsApp is the Meta-owned messaging app with more than 2 billion users. And this time, it is improving its disappearing messages feature to make it even more useful.
After first launching the disappearing message feature, and later the 'View Once' feature, the company is ramping things up a bit to give users the option to turn on disappearing messages automatically for all their new one-on-one chats.
This way, all future messages will be automatically deleted from the app.
Previously, users only had the options of having messages to disappear after seven days, or instantly. This time, WhatsApp added the option of deleting them after just 24 hours or 90 days.
In a Facebook post, founder and CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg said that:
WhatsApp noted in its own blog post that turning on disappearing messages by default should not affect existing chats.
When users start a new one-on-one chat, a notice will appear to say that the disappearing messages feature is turned on, alongside a note to explain that the feature is turned on by default.
Starting from there, all new one-on-one chats will be set to disappear at users' chosen duration
Users also have the option of turning the setting off for individual chats.
While the update does not affect group chats, WhatsApp said that it has added a new option when creating groups to let users enable the disappearing messages feature.
WhatsApp said that the features have been made available on all WhatsApp clients.
According to WhatsApp:
- If a user doesn’t open WhatsApp in the 24-hour,7-day, or 90-day period, the message will disappear from the chat. However, the preview of the message might still be displayed in notifications until WhatsApp is opened.
- When a user replies to a message, the initial message is quoted. If a user replies to a disappearing message, the quoted text might remain in the chat after the selected duration.
- 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.
For these reasons, WhatsApp said that users should use disappearing messages only with trusted individuals, as it’s possible for someone to:
- Forward or take a screenshot of a disappearing message and save it before it disappears.
- Copy and save content from the disappearing message before it disappears.
- Take a photo of a disappearing message with a camera or other device before it disappears.
"Ephemerality gives you the space to have conversations in a more open and honest way," explained Zafir Khan, Head of Consumer Product at WhatsApp.
He added that having the option to set this ephemerality on all new messages by default should help users avoid awkwardness with their friends.