As a method to further protect user privacy, WhatsApp introduced disappearing messages on its end-to-end encrypted chat platform in 2020. Continue reading to find out how to adjust the duration of a message on WhatsApp.
You typically feel relatively secure that your communication with someone isn’t being filmed and stored when you sit down and have a face-to-face conversation with them. WhatsApp aims to provide a comparable sense of assurance in the knowledge that you aren’t leaving a permanent record or digital duplicate of everything that is said in a chat thread with its disappearing messages feature.
You have control over how long messages remain visible in new chats by setting vanishing messages as the default setting. A new message’s lifespan can be set to 24 hours, 7 days, or 90 days, and changing this setting has no effect on any of your currently active chats.
Just keep in mind that the message will vanish from the chat if the receiver doesn’t open WhatsApp within the 24-hour, 7-day, or 90-day time frames, but the message preview may continue to appear in the recipient’s system notifications until WhatsApp is accessed.
- Open WhatsApp on your iPhone and tap Settings in the strip of options along the bottom of the screen (you may need to exit out of a chat thread to see it).
- Tap Account.
- Tap Privacy.
- Under “Disappearing Messages,” tap Default Message Timer.
- Select a duration after which messages should disappear in new chats. Options include 24 Hours, 7 Days, 90 Days, and Off.
Remember that after selecting a time frame for disappearing messages, it won’t affect any of your current WhatsApp chats and will only apply to new individual talks.
Additionally, keep in mind that any group member can enable or disable vanishing messages in group chats. However, a group admin can modify the group settings to limit who can enable or disable disappearing messages to other admins.
