Like it or not, WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world. And while we always recommend alternatives such as Signal and Telegram, even we have to use WhatsApp to stay in touch with a few friends that refuse to listen to our advice (and get a different messaging app).
Today we bring you the story involving WhatsApp, which already provides a way to automatically remove the content of a message for everyone in a chat; now, they are reportedly working to take things a step further with the addition of a view-once messaging option.
According to WABetaInfo, the service will introduce a feature that will immediately delete a text message after it is viewed by the recipient. In fact, this capability has been spotted on WhatsApp beta 2.22.25.20 for Android.
This can come in handy for anyone looking to remove a message from somebody else’s device to prevent it from being further shared. This means recipients won’t be able to copy or forward a view-once message, which already works with images and videos. Moreover, you won’t be able to take a screenshot of this message.
As you probably already know, Snapchat pretty much created a business around this capability, so we’re kind of puzzled why it took so long for WhatsApp to implement it, as well. In any case, better late than never.
Aside from view-once messages, WhatsApp has been offering ephemeral messages for individual and group chats for quite some time. This, however, gave recipients enough time to copy or screenshot a text message because, depending on your preferences, a message will disappear after 24 hours to 90 days.
The upcoming feature will make messages vanish immediately after the recipient views them, providing users with peace of mind that their sensitive texts won’t be seen by unintended people.
Still, there will always be a workaround, and someone could always take a photo of the message with another device. But that is something that is pretty much impossible to stop.