After being on trial for so long, WhatsApp is finally rolling out the Disappearing Messages to more users throughout the world. It is being done rather quietly though, so you may not notice its appearance inside your device.
In general, what Disappearing Messages do is that you can now choose to have a message to automatically disappear seven days after you’ve received it. Aside from individual messages, the feature is also available for group chat too although the option can only be activated by the group admin.
The Disappearing Messages feature is available on all platforms that WhatsApp currently supports including Android, iPhone, Web, Windows, macOS, and even KaiOS. Regardless of the platforms though, the general method to activate the feature is rather similar.
All you need to do is open up the chat, tap on the contact’s name, choose the Disappearing Messages option, and turn it on or off as desired. For group chat admin, open your group, tap on its name, and you should see the same option.
Meanwhile, there are a couple of things you have to take note regarding the new Disappearing Messages feature though. First, this is not a universal feature which means that you have to activate it with each of your contacts individually. Additionally, the media that comes with the messages will remain inside your device even though the message has disappeared unless you disable the Auto-Download option inside WhatsApp.
Not only that, there are also several scenarios whereby the message will continue to be around even after seven days. Among them includes if the said message has been forwarded into a chat with Disappearing Messages option turned off as well as if the message is part of a quoted reply.
Not to forget, there is also the issue of screenshotting the message before it disappears. So, we do recommend you to check out the official Disappearing Messages’ FAQ from WhatsApp to really understand the new feature before you start using it in your daily conversation.
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