WhatsApp confirms 'Disappearing messages' feature coming soon

Once enabled, messages and multimedia content will disappear after seven days.

After months of speculation, WhatsApp has formally announced to bring the 'Disappearing messages' feature to the messenger app.

The company has opened the dedicated Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page for the Disappearing messages feature.

"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," WhatsApp said.

In the group chat, only the admin has the power to turn on or off the Disappearing messages option.

WhatsApp also adds that if the receiver doesn't view the text with the Disappearing messages feature on, it will automatically get deleted from the phone.

However, if the user replies to a disappearing message, the quoted text will remain in the chat even after seven days.

It is the same for multimedia content such as a photograph or a video. They will vanish from the chat session after the seven days.

However, if the receiver has enabled the auto-download option on WhatsApp, the content will get stored in the phone, while the same gets deleted only on chat session on WhatsApp.

So, WhatsApp has advised users to turn off the auto-download feature to make use of the Disappearing messages feature.

Going by the FAQ page, WhatsApp needs to work on the Disappearing messages to really vanish from the phone after the expiration of the pre-set time. Also, if people really want the message to disappear, why WhatsApp has set the minimum to seven days. It would have been better if users can be given an option of just a few minutes or hours so that sensitive information doesn't remain on phone for a long time.

On Snapchat, Messages can be set to delete after 24 hours by changing the erase rules in Chat Settings.

Hope WhatsApp makes the necessary changes before rolling out the Disappearing messages feature to the public.