Focus of self-deleting messages overturned

I already had in October blogged about itthat self-deleting messages are planned for WhatsApp. The feature will make it possible to set up that selected messages remove themselves after a specified period of time. According to the original planning, should work in both group and individual chats. Meanwhile, WhatsApp has screwed on the function in the background and shifted the focus.

So the name has changed and it is no longer called “Disappearing Messages”, but rather “Delete Messages”. In addition, the time frames that you can set have changed. This is also shown in the following screenshot. You can choose, for example, that a message disappears into nirvana after an hour or only after up to a year.

Interestingly, in WhatsApp Beta 2.20.10.23/24 for Apple iOS, all references to individual chats have been removed. This now makes it possible that the function could ultimately only start for groups. It is rumored that the self-deleting messages in groups should ensure more order. There, only the group admins could activate the function for messages from users.

Makes sense if, for example, a group is discussing a meeting on a certain date – but the conversation becomes irrelevant after that date. The self-deleting messages would be an option to subsequently provide a better overview.

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