In November 2020, the popular social messaging platform WhatsApp introduced the “messages that disappear after 7 days” feature to make their service more competitive with the likes of Instagram Direct, Telegram, and Slack. The feature allows users to send texts or media that will ‘vanish’ after 7 days.
Then in June 2021, they came with another feature called “viewed once” messages. As the name implies, this allows users to send messages that will be gone after it has been viewed once.
Now, less than a year after they introduced the “7 days disappear messages” feature and just a few months after the “viewed once” feature, WhatsApp is back with another option where messages expire after 90 days. This means users will have the option to send a message that will vanish after 90 days.
It is important to note that all three features/options are not available yet. When they do, users will be presented with a menu where they’ll be able to pick or choose to have their chats disappear after 24 hours, 7 days, or 90 days.
Only the “90 days” option has made it to the WhatsApp Android beta, it was spotted in the platform’s latest version (2.21.9.6). We don’t know how long this option will stay in the beta realm. And also when the other two options will make it to the beta realm before they are released to all users. Regardless, it feels good to know that WhatsApp is currently working on it and are exploring ways to make their platform better.
