How To Enable / Disable Disappearing Messages On Whatsapp

How To Enable / Disable Disappearing Messages On Whatsapp.

Disappearing Messages is privacy and memory-saving feature of WhatsApp. Once activated, WhatsApp will automatically delete messages in your chats after a set period of time – 24 hours, 7 days, or 90 days.

Read: How to Enable Fingerprint Lock on WhatsApp for Android

Enabling disappearing messages in WhatsApp is like setting an expiration date for the texts you send and receive. The main point of disappearing messages is to remove private, confidential, or secret messages from your device and recipients. While Disappearing Messages is primarily a privacy-focused feature, it also saves storage space.

The Disappearing Messages feature is available for WhatsApp mobile devices (iOS and Android), WhatsApp Web, and even WhatsApp Business. We will show you how to enable this feature on these devices and operating systems.

Make WhatsApp Messages Disappear on Apple Devices

You can set up self-destruction of messages in individual and group chats. WhatsApp also allows you to enable this feature for specific chats or for all conversations.

Let’s introduce you to different ways to enable Disappearing Messages on iPhone and iPad.

Enable Disappearing Messages for Individual Chats

Open WhatsApp, go to the Chats tab, and select the WhatsApp contact/user whose chat settings you want to change.

Tap the person’s name or phone number at the top of the screen to open the contact information page. Scroll down the contact information page and select Disappearing Messages. In the Message Timer section, press selects the duration after which messages in the conversion will be deleted for both parties. There are three options: 24 hours, 7 days, and 90 days.

If you only see “On” options and “Off” in the Disappearing Messages menu, update WhatsApp from the App Store and check again.

Return to the chat window and you will see a notification that new messages will self-destruct after a certain period of time. Messages sent before the Disappearing Messages feature is enabled will remain in the conversation.

Please note that WhatsApp will also notify the other party(s) in the conversation that you have enabled Disappearing Messages.

Tip: Tap the notification to open the Disappearing Messages menu for that conversation. This allows you to quickly turn off disappearing messages or change the message timer.

Enable disappearing messages for group chats

All members of the WhatsApp group can enable or disable disappearing messages. It’s very simple: open the group’s info page, click Disappearing Messages, and choose a message timer or expiration duration.

Interestingly, group admins can prevent non-admin members from changing the settings for disappearing messages. To do this, open the group information page, click “Group settings”, click “Edit group information” and select “Administrators only”.

Set the default message timer in WhatsApp

Turning on disappearing messages manually for all individual and group conversations can be stressful. This is where the Default Message Timer option comes in. When enabled, the default message timer activates disappearing messages for all conversations in your WhatsApp accounts – both individual and group chats.

Go to WhatsApp Settings tab, select Account, select Privacy, and select Default Message Timer under Disappearing Messages. To continue, select your preferred text deletion duration.

In addition, you can also activate the default message timer in the settings menu of an individual or group chat.

Open the contact information page for any chat, select Disappearing Messages, and tap the highlighted default message timer option at the bottom of the page. This will redirect you to the Default Message Timer menu. Select your preferred message deletion duration to continue.

Make WhatsApp Messages Disappear in Android

The next steps will depend on what you want to achieve. Do you want WhatsApp to automatically delete messages in certain (individual and group) chats? Or do you want messages in all WhatsApp conversations to disappear after a certain period of time?

Follow the instructions below to learn how to enable WhatsApp Disappearing Messages on Android.

Enable Disappearing Messages for Individual Chats

Open a chat, tap the contact’s name or phone number, select Disappearing Messages, and choose a duration under Message Timer.

Subsequent messages (sent or received) in the thread will be automatically deleted after the selected time.

WhatsApp will notify everyone in the chat that Disappearing Messages is turned on. Tap the notification to change the deletion duration or disable disappearing messages.

Enable disappearing messages for group chats

By default, all group members can enable or disable disappearing messages. Here’s how to enable disappearing messages in a WhatsApp group.

Press and hold on to a group chat, select the menu icon in the top right corner, and tap Group Info. Select Disappearing Messages. Specify how long messages should be kept in a group chat before they are removed.

All group members will receive a notification when disappearing messages change. To prevent members (i.e. non-administrators) from changing the group’s disappearing message settings, open the group’s information, select Group settings > Edit group information > Administrators only, and press OK.

Enable the default message timer in WhatsApp

Want to enable disappearing messages for all WhatsApp conversations on your Android device? Open the WhatsApp settings menu, go to Account > Privacy > Default Message Timer and choose how long you want messages to remain on your device before they are deleted.

Enable Disappearing Messages on WhatsApp Web

Set up WhatsApp Web on your computer and follow the steps below to enable disappearing messages.

Open a chat and select the contact’s name/phone number.

Select Disappearing Messages.

Select On

The same steps apply to group conversations: open the group information, select Disappearing Messages, and select Enable.

Unlike mobile devices, WhatsApp Web does not have pre-set message times (i.e. 24 hours, 7 days and 90 days). The term for deleting text for WhatsApp Web is 7 days.

WhatsApp will display a notification when you (or the other party) turn Disappearing Messages on or off. Select a notification in the chat window to quickly navigate to the “Disappearing Messages” menu of the chat.

WhatsApp Disappearing Messages: Things to Note

WhatsApp recommends that you only have confidential conversations using Disappearing Messages with people you trust. This is because users can access or view the disappearing message long after it’s been deleted. For example, if a user forwards or quotes a disappearing message, the message can remain visible in the quoted text.

Users can also duplicate, copy, save, and take screenshots of disappearing messages before they disappear. Visit this WhatsApp Help Center page to learn more about disappearing messages.