Mark Zuckerberg has announced a new change to WhatsApp’s disappearing messages, which can now be saved by other users before they disappear. Previously, a disappearing message would be gone once the allotted time was up, meaning people that wanted them to stick around needed to screenshot or risk never seeing it again. Now, users can request to save the message before it disappears.
Disappearing messages can be toggled on to gain extra privacy, according to WhatsApp, and allow you to set a specific timer of 24 hours, 7 days, or 90 days before the message is deleted from the chat. With WhatsApp’s focus on encryption and privacy, the feature allows users to be confident their messages are not seen after the desired period of time – unless the other user screenshots it, that is. This became a problem, as the sending user has no idea a disappearing message has been screenshotted.
The new feature allows people in a chat to hold on the disappearing message to save it, which notifies the sender that the message has been saved, and they can either choose to keep it as a disappearing message or to keep the message shown.
“If someone keeps a message you’ve sent, you’ll get a notification. As the sender of a message, you have the ultimate control over who can keep your message. If you decide to unkeep your message, no one else in the chat can keep it again,” explains WhatsApp.
The feature is only available in limited countries as of now, so don’t be alarmed if you can’t keep messages just yet.
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