A couple of hours back, WhatsApp announced their new feature called the disappearing messages, which automatically removes the messages after a period of 7 days. Soon after the announcement, a lot of questions started coming in from the users as to how the feature will be used in the app, and are there any kind of an exception to this as well, etc. The company has now rolled out an FAQ related to this feature which will answer almost all the questions of the users. The official statement on their website states that “You can send messages that disappear on WhatsApp by enabling disappearing messages.
Once enabled, new messages sent in the individual or group chat will disappear after seven days. The most recent selection controls all messages in the chat. This setting won’t affect messages you previously sent or received in the chat.” The feature will be accessible to the user only in individual chats, however, in group chats only the admin will have the right to use this feature. Another statement from the company on the FAQ page mentions, “If a disappearing message is forwarded to a chat with disappearing messages off, the message won’t disappear in the forwarded chat.
If a user creates a backup before a message disappears, the disappearing message will be included in the backup. Disappearing messages will be deleted when a user restores from a backup“, The company also stated that users can take a snapshot or screenshot of the messages to store them before they disappear. The same feature will also work on the videos and photos with the disappearing message turned on. However, the app will save the video and photos in the device gallery before doing so. You can simply go into a chat and tap on the name of the user, click on the “Disappearing messages” option to enable it.