WhatsApp has just announced that it will soon roll out an update that will support disappearing messages. Yes, messages you send to individuals (and even groups) will evaporate away after seven days.
For the individual chats, any of the two parties involved can activate the disappearing messages feature. However, for the group chats, only the group’s admin can activate this feature.
“We’re starting with seven days because we think it offers peace of mind that conversations aren’t permanent, while remaining practical so you don’t forget what you were chatting about,” – said a spokesperson from WhatsApp.
“The shopping list or store address you received a few days ago will be there while you need it, and then disappear after you don’t.”
And the Photos, Videos, Voice Notes sent in chat?
Well, even the photos and videos shared in chats will disappear if the feature is activated. But… before you drop your guard down and think you can start sharing profanity or bullying people on WhatsApp. While the messages will disappear after seven days, you should know that it is a long time and more than enough time for someone to take screenshots or record the threads using another phone camera. So you can’t start monkey business with this feature.
In a nutshell, disappearing messages are only useful if you don’t want to keep track of chat from a long time ago. Not your ticket to start sending things you might later regret. WhatsApp.
When’s it coming out?
Well, as we can see from the tweet below. No date has been announced yet; neither is there an update on Play Store. So we reckon it must be soon, but we can tell just how soon is soon.
Introducing disappearing messages. Now you can set chats to disappear after 7 days. Because not all messages need to stick around forever. pic.twitter.com/3Ny2mVxSaQ
— WhatsApp Inc. (@WhatsApp) November 5, 2020
What do the People want?
And in other news, here are some of the users’ additional requested features to enrich their WhatsApp experience:
What I need, is for you to not announce to the whole world, when I’ve left a group or deleted a message can you do that?
— C.A.Kolo🎭 (@CKolo5) November 5, 2020
Pl include secrete chat too
No forward
No Screenshot
Auto delete once read
Auto hide contactsEtc etc
— Futurestic (@Grapheene) November 5, 2020
Requesting few features :
In a group chat messages can we have filter to see messages by a particular person?
Pinned chats , can we have option of atleast 10 pinned chats?
Grouping of chats in different tabs like social , official etc with default primary view(Like gmail) ?— SB (@SB_100100) November 5, 2020
Who is waiting for multiple device support feature.????
— ✪✪||Vicky||✪✪ (@_vivek4u) November 5, 2020
You can’t have end-to-end encryption and multi device support at the same time. It just doesn’t work. Switch to Messenger or Telegram if privacy is less important than have it on multiple devices.
— Cihan 🇪🇺 (@m106) November 5, 2020
Will we get a notification if the other end chooses to screenshot the conversation?
— Forgive me if i’m slow😎 (@QassimBeka001) November 5, 2020
Really a useless feature, can you create something like in built group polls or something like that
— Shayak Roy (@shayakroy94) November 5, 2020
I want you to put an alert when someone tagged you in status
— Fequiere Ivenson (@Ivipanther) November 5, 2020
It would be great if you added the ability to schedule a message, to highlight threads from a particular contact in Groups chats, and the ability to set Message Received (Blue ticks) for just specific contacts not everyone.
— Felix Omondi (@flexxmosh) November 5, 2020