What are Disappearing Messages on Whatsapp?
WhatsApp is a great messaging app for staying in touch with friends and family. But what happens if you need to send a message that you don’t want others to see?
WhatsApp has a great solution for this: disappearing messages. Let’s understand how to use this feature to ensure more secure and safer communication.
Disappearing messages on Whatsapp
Disappearing messages are messages that disappear after a certain amount of time has passed. This is a great way to keep your conversations private and safe. There can be certain situations in which you do not want anyone to see chats; for example, you might have shared a password to one of your accounts, disappearing message will delete the traces of that password.
The timer will start as soon as the recipient opens the message. Once the timer runs out, the message will disappear from both devices. This is a great way to keep your conversations private and safe. Disappearing messages on Whatsapp is an optional privacy feature.
When you enable disappearing messages, you can set messages to disappear after 24 hours, 7 days, or 90 days. The most recent pick controls only new chat messages. You can choose to enable disappearing messages for all of your chats, or you can select individual conversations.
This setting does not affect chat messages previously sent or received. In an individual chat, either person can enable or disable vanishing messages. Any member in a group chat can toggle vanishing messages on or off. However, a group administrator can adjust group settings such that only administrators can enable or disable disappearing messages.
- The message will be deleted if a user does not open WhatsApp within 24 hours, 7 days, or 90 days. However, the message preview may continue to appear in alerts until WhatsApp is accessed.
- The initial message gets quoted when you reply to it. If you reply to a message that is set to expire, the quoted text may remain in the chat after the time you specify.
- If a disappearing message is forwarded to a conversation where disappearing messages are disabled, the message will not disappear.
- If a user creates a backup prior to a message’s deletion, the message will be included in the backup. When a user restores from a backup, disappearing messages will be eliminated.
Note: Disappearing messages should only be sent to trusted individuals. It is feasible, for instance,
- to forwards or capture a screenshot of a vanishing message before it disappears.
- Copy and save the content of the vanishing message before it vanishes.
- Use a camera or other equipment to photograph a vanishing message before it disappears.
Disappearing messages for your WhatsApp account
iPhone and Android: Go to WhatsApp Settings > tap Account > Privacy > Default message timer and select a duration.
What Happens with media in disappearing messages?
By default, media downloaded in WhatsApp will be saved to your pictures folder. If disappearing messages are enabled, chat-sent media will vanish but will be saved on the device if auto-download is enabled.
You may disable automatic downloads in Settings > Storage & Data.
Summary
Using disappearing messages on WhatsApp is a great way to keep your conversations private. It’s simple to do and provides an extra layer of security. Just be sure to follow the steps outlined in this article to make sure your messages are actually disappearing!