How do temporary WhatsApp messages work?

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Relatively recently, WhatsApp offered an update to its app, among the new features that included one in particular: The possibility of creating temporary WhatsApp messages. These messages have a number of functions and benefits that make them attractive to any user.

These types of messages already existed on other instant messaging platforms such as Telegram, if you add a bit of additional privacy features to WhatsApp. Now, in addition to end-to-end encryption, once you activate the temporary messages option, messages that are older than seven days will be completely deleted.

Benefits of temporary messages on WhatsApp

This new WhatsApp feature has been well received by many users, as it brings some important benefits when used:

Increase privacy by allowing messages to be automatically deleted after seven days, not only on your device but also on the device of the person you are chatting with.

It helps to reduce the amount of storage space that WhatsApp occupies on your device, since old messages will be deleted automatically.

This function is activated directly in each chat where you require that the messages be temporary, so if you want to keep a conversation for a long time, it is no problem.

Not only can it be applied in individual chats, but if you are an administrator of a WhatsApp group , you can activate this function to avoid storing an excessive number of messages.
It should not be forgotten that there is also another old WhatsApp function related to the concept of temporary messages, and that is that people who make use of this system can delete a message for all users within a certain time frame, and has been, until now, a very well received function by users.

How to activate the option of temporary messages of WhatsApp?

If you want your messages not to remain in the chat for more than seven days, either for space or privacy reasons, you can activate the WhatsApp temporary messages function in a very simple way, both on Android and iOS and in the version web, you just have to follow the following steps:

Start the WhatsApp application

Touch the profile photo of the contact or group where you want to activate the temporary messages function

Select the temporary messages option , remember that in the case of groups, you must be an administrator to be able to activate this option. If the system asks you to press the Continue option, do so.

Select the on option
As you can see, it is very easy to activate this function, and you can deactivate it whenever you want. Once you activate it, an icon of a timer will appear next to the chat, both on your device and that of the other user (or users, depending on whether it is a WhatsApp group), as well as a notification within the chat indicating that the temporary messages option is activated.

If for some reason you no longer want to have this option activated, you can follow the steps below to deactivate WhatsApp temporary messages:

Start WhatsApp

Touch the profile photo of the contact or Group

Select the temporary messages

option Touch the Disabled option
When doing this, the WhatsApp temporary messages option will be completely deactivated, the timer icon will disappear and a notification will appear in the chat about the deactivation of temporary messages. It is important to note that disabling this option will not make the messages that were deleted during use reappear.

What should you keep in mind regarding the temporary messages of the chats?

Although the new WhatsApp feature sounds promising, its use is not completely perfect yet, as there are some ways to continue seeing temporary messages after activating the option:

Temporary messages can be activated for a single period of seven days.

If a temporary message is forwarded to another chat where this option is not active, this message will not be removed from that chat.

If you reply to a message within a chat with temporary messages enabled, the quoted text will not disappear from the chat when the initial message does.

If a certain user has not opened their WhatsApp in seven days, the messages can still be read in the app’s notification preview.

If any user who has temporary chats and creates a backup before a message disappears, the content of the chats will be preserved. Although these will be removed after a restore from backup is done.

There is the possibility of being able to take screenshots to save the messages before they disappear.

Multimedia files downloaded from a chat will be kept within the device if this option is activated, and will not be deleted when the message is automatically deleted from the chats.
In any case, it only remains to wait to see what improvements this update receives, such as the possibility of establishing other time limits or limiting the options to preserve the content of these messages in other ways.

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