WhatsApp already lets you send disappearing photos, videos, and voice messages, but it has never offered the same for plain text. That is about to change. The app is now testing a “view-once” option for text messages, and it has been spotted in both iOS and Android pre-release builds.
According to Engadget, the feature showed up in the iOS 26.24.10.16 beta on TestFlight, as well as in a recent Android pre-release version. WABetaInfo spotted both instances.
WhatsApp has over two billion users worldwide, so even a small feature addition tends to matter at scale. This one fills an obvious gap that has existed for years, especially given that sister apps Messenger and Instagram have offered view-once messages for some time.
Here is how it works, based on what has been seen in the beta builds so far:
- You compose a text message as normal, then select a new “Send as view once” option before sending
- The recipient can open and read the message exactly once before it disappears
- They cannot copy, forward, or share the text
- WhatsApp blocks screenshots and screen recordings to keep the message private
Before this feature existed, users who wanted to send a disappearing text had to take a screenshot of it and send it as a view-once image. That workaround was clunky and not exactly intuitive for most people.
The timing makes sense. Privacy-focused messaging has been growing as a priority for users, and apps like Snapchat built their entire identity around ephemeral content. Telegram has offered view-once messages for a while too. WhatsApp has been the outlier among major messaging platforms by not having this for text specifically.
There is no confirmed release date yet for a public rollout. That said, being in TestFlight on iOS is typically one of the later stages before a wider release, so it likely is not far off.