WhatsApp Offers More Controllable Settings

Privately connecting the world is what WhatsApp is all about. There is something special about sitting down with someone in-person and sharing your thoughts in confidence, knowing that both of you are connected in that moment and in private. Knowing that your conversation is not being recorded and stored forever gives you the freedom to be honest and vulnerable.

This should be your decision as to how long a message should last. The vast majority of what we type gets captured digitally without even noticing it. There’s now a permanent log in which everything we say is noted. It’s like having a note taker always with us. As a result, WhatsApp introduced disappearing messages last year, as well as a way to delete photos and videos after viewing them once.

The default disappearing message feature and multiple durations in WhatsApp will allow users greater control over messages and how long they stick around.

From now on, WhatsApp users will be able to set disappearing messages as the default setting when creating new chats. By enabling this option, new one-on-one chats you or another person start will disappear after your selected duration, and when you are creating a group chat, you can turn this option on for your group. All existing chats will remain unchanged and this new feature is optional.

Furthermore, in addition to the existing 7-day option for disappearing messages, users can choose between 24 hours and 90 days in the new option.

By default, disappearing messages will be enabled for those who choose to do so.They will display a message in your chats stating this is the default that you have selected. That makes it clear that it’s nothing personal – you’re choosing how to communicate with everyone on WhatsApp moving forward. Even so, if you need a particular conversation to remain permanent, you can switch a chat again if need be.

The fact that we’ve been apart for over a year has made it more evident than ever that we shouldn’t have to sacrifice our privacy simply because we can’t converse face-to-face.

Due to that, WhatsApp believes that disappearing messages along with end-to-end encryption are two important features that define what it means to be a private messaging service today, and bring us closer to the feeling of in-person communication.

You can start by going to your Privacy settings and selecting “Default Message Timer.” Learn more here.