Self-destructing WhatsApp Messages in Any Chat: Future Function

WhatsApp continues working to add functions. While its traffic has increased fivefold in Spain due to the coronavirus and confinement, the company continues to develop new features to include in the app. Now, WhatsApp is testing a function that in principle was only going to reach the groups, but that finally will reach all the chats : the messages that self-destruct.

This feature first appeared in beta version 2.19.275, in which there were only references to deleting messages within a group and private chats between two people were never mentioned. However, that has changed in updates 2.20.83 and 2.20.84 as WABetaInfo claims that the feature has reappeared for individual chats.

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You can delete WhatsApp messages 1 hour later

Thus, with this function we can click on the profile of a person in the chat we have with them, and choose the option of “ Delete messages ”. If we give it, we can choose how long the messages will last before they are deleted, and we can choose between periods of 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month and 1 year .

Once we have activated it, in each message we send a small clock indicator will appear next to it, indicating that the message will have a limited duration. What is not said is from what moment the duration of the message will begin to count, but the most logical thing would be for it to start counting once it has been read by the receiver, since if it lasts an hour and it starts counting from the has been sent, the receiver will not read it.

Therefore, once the function arrives, we can use it both in groups and in individual chats, thanks to which we will gain in privacy because the messages will be deleted over time, in addition to reducing the size of the backup copies that we store in the mobile in the cloud. These backups will also become encrypted soon, ultimately preventing the FBI or authorities from accessing our messages upon request to a judge.

As we see, WhatsApp is getting its batteries to improve the privacy of the application after the numerous criticisms it has received for the serious vulnerabilities discovered in the last year, where sending a GIF, a video file or making a call allowed to take advantage of vulnerabilities to spy on the chats of any user, even hacking Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world.

At the moment it is not known when the function will arrive, but it should start appearing in the beta of the app in the coming months. Despite this novelty, methods can still be used to recover deleted WhatsApp messages.