WhatsApp Rolls Out Disappearing Messages & Storage Management Tool

WhatsApp is the largest messaging platform in the world with more than 2 billion users.

WhatsApp is pushing a feature called Disappearing Messages for users globally.

(Photo: iStock)

WhatsApp has been pushing out a number of features in order to stay afloat in the competitive messaging platforms segments against the likes of Telegram and Slack.

The Facebook-owned platform has announced the rollout of “Disappearing Messages” feature that will allow a user to send messages that will automatically vanish after a certain period of time.

WhatsApp has also announced a new storage management tool called “Manage storage” that will help you get rid of that extra junk and media files you receive on WhatsApp.

WhatsApp’s Manage Storage Feature

The new storage management tool from WhatsApp makes it more useful for users to easily identify, review and bulk delete content that may be filling their phone.

Currently, WhatsApp collects all of the media downloaded and stores it in one place. With the new update, forward messages will be placed in a separate folder and there will be another folder for files larger than 5MB.

This way users will have a better idea of what files they can delete from their phone. Users will also see a preview of media before selecting one or multiple items to delete.

The Facebook-owned instant messaging platform said that the new storage management tools are rolling out to users worldwide this week.

When available, users can navigate to the new tool by going to "Settings", then "Storage and data" and then "Manage storage".

Disappearing Messages

The Disappearing Messages feature can only be enabled for a particular conversation. You will have to tap the contact’s profile with whom you want the feature to work. After tapping on their name, just tap the On/Off option to start the conversation.

All the messages in that chat window will automatically get deleted after 7 days although they might get backed up on your cloud storage if the cloud storage option is activated.

Similarly, if a user sends photos, videos or documents with disappearing messages turned on, they will disappear in the mentioned time period although will be backed-up in the phone’s gallery.

At the moment the disappearing messages feature is only available for individual users but in a group chat only admins will be allowed to turn disappearing messages on or off.

“If a disappearing message is forwarded to a chat with disappearing messages off, the message won’t disappear in the forwarded chat. If a user creates a backup before a message disappears, the disappearing message will be included in the backup. Disappearing messages will be deleted when a user restores from a backup”, WhatsApp said on its FAQ page.

WhatsApp has issued a warning to users saying that this feature should only be used with trustworthy recipients.