How to Enable Self-Destructing Messages on Signal

There are just some messages no one else needs to see. Since you never know who might gain access to your phone, it’s best to make those messages with important information disappear as soon as possible. WhatsApp has self-destructing messages, and Signal has its disappearing messages. Let’s see how you can turn them on.

How to Turn on Disappearing Messages on Signal

You’ll be able to easily spot the disappearing messages on Signal since they’ll have a timer countdown icon at the bottom of the bubble. The timer will start to count down as soon as the other person sees the message and not before. To turn on the feature, open Signal, followed by the contact.

Tap on the dots at the top right of any contact, and the disappearing messages option will be the first one on the list.

Once you select the option, a timer will appear with various time options. Swipe in either direction to choose the time you want the messages to last. You can choose from options such as:

• Off
•  Five seconds
• 10 seconds
• 30 seconds
• One minute
• Five minutes
• 30 minutes
• One hour
• Six hours
• 12 hours
• One day
• One week

Once you’ve turned on the feature, you’ll see a timer icon and the time you set for the messages to last at the top and at the bottom of the contact.

The person you send the message to will be notified of how long the message will last. Remember that the other person can still take screenshots as long as the message is there. If you want to stop them from doing that, you’ll need to turn on Screen Security.

You can do this by going to:

• Settings
• Privacy
• Screen security

By toggling on this option, no one can take screenshots of your conversations. You can relax that your information is going to stay private.

Conclusion

Thanks to the disappearing messages option, you can forget about having to erase messages with sensitive information manually. It can also be very time-consuming if there are various messages involved. How long do you think a message that disappears should last? Share your thoughts in the comments below.