Do you want to strengthen the confidentiality of your exchanges on the Internet? The instant messaging app WhatsApp now has an option to automatically delete messages after a certain amount of time. Prodigemobile explains everything about how WhatsApp’s new ephemeral message system works.
Automatically delete your threads
WhatsApp keeps bringing new features to its two billion users. After setting up the location sharing now the messaging application in turn launches into ephemeral messages.
Coincidentally, it is a small revolution. WhatsApp users will be able to manage all of their conversations more efficiently and schedule the automatic deletion of messages.
If your smartphone’s memory is regularly full, this feature could be useful to you. And then let’s not forget that our discussion threads are often full of messages of no interest.
With this new feature, you can automatically delete messages received 24 hours, 7 days or 90 days after they were sent. The app will clean up your chats for you. Important detail, this option is available on Android but also on iOS (iPhone).
How to enable temporary messages on WhatsApp
First of all, you will need to make sure you have the latest version of WhatsApp on your phone. To do this, launch the Google Play Store and click on the Manage application and devices section. Then find the WhatsApp application in the available updates section.
Click on the corresponding button and follow the instructions displayed on the screen. The update process will start automatically. You will receive a notification to let you know when the task is completed.
- Launch the WhatsApp app
- Select the discussion thread (group or private conversation) in which you want to activate the automatic destruction of messages
- Click on the recipient’s name at the top of the window
- During the first activation, a warning message will explain to you in a few lines the operation of the ephemeral messages
- Click the continue button
- roll down the window
- Select the Ephemeral Messages option
- Then choose the delay before deletion by checking the corresponding box (90 days, 7 days or 24 hours)
Now all new messages sent in this conversation will automatically disappear once the duration (previously configured) has passed. Important detail, previously sent messages are not affected.
Of course, nothing prevents you from modifying the time period defined or deactivating the function in the event that you wish to keep a conversation. It should also be noted that this device (ephemeral discussion) does not offer perfect confidentiality.
Indeed, your correspondents can always copy or take a screenshot of your messages. Also, if a discussion was inserted into a quote before it disappeared, it will remain visible in the quoted text.
Note that WhatsApp offers a new option to activate the automatic disappearance function of a discussion for all of its conversations. Now here is the trick to activate this new option on Android.
- open whatsapp
- Click on the menu button (3 dots) placed in the upper right corner of the screen
- Go to Settings then to Account
- Click on the Privacy section
- Select the Delay before disappearance option
- Choose how long new messages will be kept
Group messages are not affected by this feature. Only admins can change group chat settings.
