WhatsApp gives users more tools to deal with disappearing messages. That’s a conversation feature where messages disappear automatically. You can now set the duration in which messages are displayed.
WhatsApp disappearing messages
WhatsApp introduced expired messages in November last year, also known as the disappearing messages. If you start such a conversation, all your messages will automatically disappear after seven days. So it’s basically a privacy feature. WhatsApp announces on its blog that it is now building on that concept, but that users now have more control over how the feature works.
You can now set how long messages should remain before they disappear from a conversation. This is possible for 24 hours, 7 days or 90 days. In other words, you can choose to keep messages for longer or to have them disappear after a day. You can set such a time for each conversation, but WhatsApp users now also have the option to enable disappearing messages by default for all new chats. The messaging app will then respect the chosen duration of disappearing messages for those conversations.
Here’s how to set a default timer for all your new conversations:
- Open WhatsApp
- Long press on a conversation
- Choose the menu with the three dots and then Show Contact
- Tap Expired Messages
- Press Try a default message timer
- Choose the desired duration
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You can also set disappearing messages for groups that you manage yourself. If you choose to switch to disappearing chat messages by default, a message will appear in your chats to let others know that you have chosen this setting as the default. So it’s clear that it’s not personal: it’s a choice you made about how you want to communicate with everyone on WhatsApp from now on.
If you want to leave the messages permanently for a certain conversation, you can of course easily restore that chat.