WhatsApp’s ‘Disappearing Message’ feature allows messages to be automatically deleted after some time (usually a period of seven days), without users having to delete it themselves. This way, both sender and receiver lose record of what have been sent or shared. This feature was introduced by WhatsApp in November last year and was only available for individual chats and admins on the instant messaging platform, but something may be about to change…
A recent report by WABetaInfo says that the ‘Disappearing Message’ feature may soon be available to every member in a WhatsApp group and not be limited to only Group admins. This feature was spotted on the latest beta on Android version 2.21.8.7 which was recently rolled out by parent company Facebook.
According to the report, “WhatsApp is now rolling out the possibility to toggle disappearing messages from any group member if the administrator didn’t disable this possibility”. This report automatically means that every group member in a WhatsApp group will be able to use the ‘Disappearing Message’ feature. WABetaInfo alongside its report shared a screenshot of the feature. The screenshot showed the option ‘Edit group info’ has been updated to reflect the recent changes; therefore it can be used by either only admins or everyone in the group, depending on selected settings.
WABetaInfo also reports that WhatsApp is also testing to reduce the time of disappearing messages from the current 7 days to probably 24 hours. WABetaInfo last month shared a tweet indicating this. The tweet read, “WhatsApp is testing the ability to set messages to disappear after 24 hours”.
WhatsApp has also released the beta version 2.21.8.9 for Android which brings Redesigned Mention Badge feature and will allow users to view a mention badge when they receive a mention in a message from a specific WhatsApp group.
WABetaInfo is the platform that keeps track of all WhatsApp’s new features, updates and beta versions. Information given by WABetaInfo is highly credible and can be taken to be true. WhatsApp is arguably the leading instant messaging app in the world but is currently undergoing backlashes for its new privacy policy updates that will take effect from next month.
