WhatsApp To Launch Disappearing Messages Feature: What This Means

WhatsApp has announced a new feature that will allow its users to send messages that can disappear after seven days. The service which delivers 100 billion messages to its users every day, will roll out this feature by end of November. Messages sent through this feature will disappear after 7 days or a week, without taking into consideration whether the message has been delivered or read. This is an important disguising feature like the other Facebook messaging tool, Facebook messenger, which lets users decide the time period they want to make their messages available for the recipient.

The 7-day time period might change in future. "We will keep an eye on feedback about how people are using it and liking it and see if it needs adjusting in the future," a spokesperson told TechCrunch. These disappearing messages will be available for individual chats and group conversations will include media like photos and videos.

The FAQ section of the WhatsApp web blog details how to activate these messages.

Privacy Concerns

There are important caveats in this privacy feature. WhatsApp is not preventing receivers from copying and saving the content from disappearing messages, and if a WhatApp message backup is created before the disappearing message disappears, it will be included in the backup. Disappearing messages can also be forwarded to other people.

But it is important to understand how the backup works:

For Android users, WhatApp is geared towards saving all the media to your camera roll automatically unless you change it.

So even if you send a disappearing photo or video, they might be saved in your phone.

The disappearing feature will also not work if your WhatsApp messages will be backed up on a cloud service for back up even if they expire on your device.