WhatsApp is the app for many people to stay in touch with friends and family. People send each other messages, videos, photos, funny gifs and much more. But is it necessary to keep all these messages? A shopping list or some other temporary message doesn’t have to be kept for the rest of your life. Even in some WhatsApp groups where only chatting takes place, it is not necessary to always save messages. In cases like this, WhatsApp disappearing messages come in handy. How do the auto-disappear messages in WhatsApp work, after what time do they disappear and how do you set it up?
- Explanation
- Set up
- Sometimes visible
What are disappearing messages in WhatsApp?
Disappearing messages in WhatsApp are messages that are automatically deleted from a chat after a certain number of days. Once set up, you don’t have to do anything for this: the message has disappeared from the chat for every participant after the chosen period. WhatsApp initially opted for a seven-day period, but more options have been added since December 2021. You can therefore choose a shorter or longer period yourself.
Please note that this setting applies per chat and not per message. This means that all messages sent in the chat will automatically disappear after the chosen period. So messages will disappear as long as the setting for that chat remains enabled. In a one-to-one conversation, any participant can activate or deactivate the setting, but in a group conversation, only an administrator can do this.
WhatsApp calls this feature “messages with expiration dates.” Since the introduction of the ‘Keep in chat’ function, it is still possible to save disappearing messages, but only with the sender’s permission.
Set WhatsApp disappearing messages
This is how you set up the auto-disappearing messages in WhatsApp:
- Open WhatsApp and open the chat for which you want to enable the function.
- Tap the name at the top to go to the info screen.
- Scroll down to the option Messages with expiration date.
- The first time you get a short explanation of this function. Tap Continue to continue.
- Turn on the feature. Choose the timer for future messages: 24 hours, 7 days or 90 days.
- Go back to the chat. In the conversation, you’ll see a notice that expiration messages are enabled. To turn it off again, tap the notification or follow the steps above.
All messages sent after switching on the function will automatically disappear after the selected period. For groups, keep in mind that only the administrator can enable this.
Set default timer for new chats
Since December 2021, you can also set a default timer for new chats. As a result, any new chat you start after choosing a default timer will have an expiration date. So if you always want to keep all your chats tidy in the future by having messages automatically deleted, you should have this setting.
You set the default timer in WhatsApp as follows:
- Go to WhatsApp > Settings.
- Tap Account > Privacy.
- Under the Messages with expiration heading, find Default message timer.
- Choose a default timer for your new chats.
Please note that this only applies to individual chats and not to group chats.
Messages are sometimes still visible, even after seven days
In some cases, a message older than seven days is still visible even if the feature is enabled:
- If the recipient doesn’t open the message within the set time period, the message may still appear in WhatsApp’s notification. The message does not automatically disappear after a week.
- When quoting and replying to messages, the original message remains visible, even longer than the set period. Only if the reply to the message is also older than the set period, will the original message also disappear.
- Recipients can forward the message to another chat where the feature is disabled. The message will then be kept longer in that conversation.
- If you make a backup before the message disappears, the message will only disappear again after this backup has been restored. This can therefore be longer than the set period.
- A message can also be saved in a screenshot. As the sender, you will not be notified of this.
- The message can be copied by the recipient and stored elsewhere. A photo can also be taken with another device of the conversation.
So there are still all kinds of ways to keep messages (longer), even if the function is enabled. So keep that in mind when sending a message and its content. Also think carefully about who you are sending such a message to.
Did you know that you can also delete WhatsApp messages for everyone, so that they are no longer visible to anyone? You can read how to do that in our tip.
