Now, WhatsApp may roll out disappearing messages
What's the story
After PiP mode, dark mode, and fingerprint lock, WhatsApp is working on another interesting capability for its users - disappearing messages. The feature, as the name suggests, will automatically make messages vanish, saving you from the trouble of deleting chat threads manually in the app. Here's all you need to know about the feature and its working.
Disappearance
Disappearing messages to keep your WhatsApp clean
WhatsApp users tend to delete conversations that are not as important or relevant as others, like the memories of a former relationship or a normal conversation with, say, a vendor. But, as they may forget deleting these messages from time to time, the Facebook-owned service is bringing the ability to having messages deleted automatically after a pre-determined period of time.
Working
How the messages will be deleted
The ability to delete messages automatically will work with a dedicated option called 'disappearing messages' available in the Group Info section, WABetaInfo reported. Once you select this button, WhatsApp will prompt you to pick the time interval after which the messages would be removed. Notably, here, you could either select 5 seconds or an hour as the time for the message to disappear.
Access
After disappearing, the messages won't be available
Once the feature is enabled, WhatsApp will wait for the set period and delete any messages that may have landed in that group. Also, do note that the messages would be removed permanently and there would be no way to read or access them again. The same capability might even be replicated for private chats on the service.
Availability
You cannot use this feature right now
The disappearing messages feature has been spotted in the alpha stage of development, which seems to indicate that WhatsApp has just started working on it. As of now, the company has not said anything about this feature and there is no way to say when or if it will show up as a feature of WhatsApp's stable version for iOS and Android.