WhatsApp Rolling Out Disappearing Letters Feature

Facebook is now rolling out a new disappearing messages feature to all WhatsApp users on iOS and Android, allowing messages, photos, and videos to be marked to disappear after 7 days (via TechCrunch).

Disappearing messages

Users can utilise the feature for direct letters, and information technology tin be enabled in groups by members with administrator privileges. The 7-day limit exists regardless of whether the recipient reads the message or non, with the timer starting from when the message is sent.

Facebook also hinted at potentially offering a wider range of time limits in the futurity:

"We volition keep an center on feedback about how people are using it and liking it and see if it needs adjusting in the future," a spokesperson for Facebook said. "For now we are starting with seven days, because it feels like a prissy balance between the utility you need for global text based conversations and the feeling of things not sticking around forever."

The implementation of the feature was reportedly delayed by the need for end-to-stop encryption:

"[Finish-to-end encryption] was partly why information technology took usa then long to implement this feature, because we wanted to retain the e2e capabilities that WhatsApp users look and love," the spokesperson remarked.

There are also indications that Facebook may be looking to comport over the feature to its Messenger app, where it would sit in addition to the pre-existing "clandestine" messaging feature which allows the sender to command how long a message remains in a separate feed. This seems increasingly likely given Facebook's long-term plan to merge Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp conversation platforms.

Before this week, WhatsApp began rolling out a new and improved fashion to manage storage in the app, helping users identify, select, and bulk delete GIFs, photos, and videos that may exist filling upward their device.

As with the recent storage changes, the new disappearing letters feature will not be enabled past default. Information technology will instead need to be actively turned on in settings.

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