It looks like we’ll soon be getting a ‘Disappearing Messages’ feature on WhatsApp. As per a report on Wabetainfo, WhatsApp is looking at releasing the feature in a future update. So what exactly are Disappearing Messages. Well, If you receive a bunch of messages and don’t read them for about 7 days, those messages will disappear. Users will have the option to enable this feature when it does eventually arrive.
A key thing to remember though is that when you do enable the feature, there is no option to customize the time frame for when the messages are deleted. All unread messages will expire after 7 days. Although, if you do not clear your notification panel, the messages will still be available to be read.
The cited source in the Wabetainfo report goes on to say, “When you reply to a message, the initial message is quoted. If you reply to a disappearing message, the quoted text might remain in the chat after seven days. If a disappearing message is forwarded to a chat with disappearing messages off, the message won’t disappear in the forwarded chat.”. You can still backup your chats on Google Drive and view them there but you will not be able to restore those particular chats once the Disappearing Messages feature is enabled. The Disappearing Messages feature will be hitting for iOS, Android, KaiOS, and Web/Desktop users as well.