Popular messaging app WhatsApp is getting a new disappearing messages feature starting this week.
When enabled, new messages sent in an individual or group chat will disappear after seven days. This won't affect messages you've previously sent or received in a chat. In one-to-one chats, either person can turn disappearing messages on or off. With group chats, the admin of the group will have control over this feature.
WhatsApp says that disappearing messages is rolling out to users everywhere this month. This includes in the iPhone and Android apps.
To enable disappearing messages, open WhatsApp and click on the contact's name in a one-to-one chat or the group name in a group chat. Then tap on "Disappearing Messages" and select "On".
WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world, and so it's good to see it adding support for disappearing messages. This could be a useful privacy feature to enable, as it'll keep recent messages around long enough if you need to reference them again but will delete older messages and keep others from snooping through your entire chat history.
