Facebook-owned chatting application WhatsApp will be introducing a disappearing messages feature. Once the feature is enabled, it will make new messages sent in individual or group chats disappear after seven days.
According to the information provided on their support page, enabling the settings will not affect messages previously sent or received in a chat. For a regular chat, the user can turn disappearing messages on and off by themselves. In a group chat, only the admins can activate or deactivate the feature.
Users must note that if WhatsApp has not been opened within seven days of receiving the message, the message will disappear. However, its preview might still be displayed in the notifications. According to the messaging company, the feature will not work if the disappearing message is a forward.
Depending on the media download settings, if auto-download has been activated by the receiving user, the images, videos and other media will be automatically saved on the device. The drawback is that there is no option for customising the duration after which the messages will be deleted.
