WhatsApp Self-Destructing Messages: What You Need to Know

The WhatsApp self-destructing messages feature was something all users were waiting for. But, when it finally arrived, something was missing: Options. The only option when choosing how long those messages lasted was one week, unlike Telegram, which gives their users a lot more options when it comes to timing.

But, are you sure you know everything there is to know about the feature that erases your messages after a week? Let’s see what you need to consider before using this useful feature.

Things to Keep in Mind When Using WhatsApp Self-Destructing Messages Feature

If you send a self-destructing message and the other person doesn’t open the chat for a week, they can still read the message. This is possible because the messages are still visible from the notifications of their device.

If you send someone an image and download it before it’s erased. They’ll still have it afterward. Some users decide to set up WhatsApp to save storage space, so it doesn’t automatically download the media they receive. But, some have it on automatic download. So as soon as they reive it, it’s downloaded to their device’s gallery. Even if, for some reason, the image is not downloaded to the gallery app, if they have an app that recovers deleted WhatsApp messages, they’ll be able to get it back.

The self-destructing text message you’re going to send doesn’t prevent others from taking screenshots. So far, WhatsApp hasn’t said anything about adding this security feature to the text messages. But, hopefully, they’ll add it soon.

Since there is no way to control when the other person creates a backup of the chat, the messages will re-appear if they do this before the messages are erased. Let’s not forget that if the other person re-sent the text to someone else, a copy of what you sent will be on someone’s WhatsApp chat.

Final Thoughts

There is still room for improvement for the features. Hopefully, WhatsApp will be adding the additional setting it needs to make the feature even more useful. For example, it would be nice, like I mentioned earlier, that WhatsApp won’t allow the other person to take a screenshot of that text or send it to anyone else.