WhatsApp developing a new self-destructing message feature

WhatsApp is testing out a new feature that will allow users to send message capable of self-destructing after a certain period of time. This new feature could be especially useful to people who want to send confidential or sensitive messages and don’t want the recipient to have permanent access to them.

Although this can be quite a useful feature to have, it is nothing new. It has been used on various messaging apps such as Telegram, which even lets you have entire chats that can be deleted immediately or delete automatically after a set time. Emailing clients have this feature as well. For example, the confidential mode in Gmail, which not only lets users send emails with an expiry time but also prevents them from doing other things like copying the contents of the email, forwarding it and downloading it.

Having said that, nowhere will this feature come into more use than on WhatsApp, due to the sheer number of people that use it on a daily basis. According to reports from WABetaInfo, however, there is still some time before this feature will be rolled out to the general public. It is still in beta form, and its implementation is still crude at this stage. The feature is only supported in group chats for now, and the user can only choose between self-destruct times of 5 seconds or an hour, with no options in between. The user must also commit to having all their messages self destruct in that chat after the set time. Also, it is currently only being developed for the Android app, but expect an iOS version not long after.

There’s no saying when this feature will actually be available on WhatsApp, and to what extent it will be useful. But any step towards a more private chatting experience, especially on the most popular messaging platform in the world, must be appreciated.

Via: The Verge

Source: WABetaInfo