Tired of having to periodically delete long group conversations with talkative people, shopping lists or chats from centuries ago? WhatsApp has just launched a new functionality that will allow you to keep your WhatsApp history clean and look much more like a real conversation, in which the words are blown away.
Actually, and although it is great to be able to save memories of our family and friends, most conversations that are held on WhatsApp are inconsequential and it does not make much sense to archive them.
These messages that self-destruct can be activated for specific chats or groups, and by doing so WhatsApp will automatically delete the messages seven days after they are sent , a time that is considered sufficient to be able to follow the thread of the conversation without missing anything, but beyond of which it does not make much sense to keep the history either
As we have already mentioned, temporary WhatsApp messages can be activated in private conversations or in groups, although for groups it will be the administrator or administrators who can activate or deactivate them.
Characteristics of temporary messages
If you reply by quoting a temporary message, that message will not disappear.
Keep in mind that if you do not open WhatsApp for seven days, the temporary messages will disappear, although the notifications may continue to be displayed.
If you make a backup before the messages disappear, these will also be saved, and will be deleted when you restore from a backup.
If you forward a temporary message to a chat with temporary messages turned off, the message will not disappear in that chat.
And what about photos and videos?
With regard to multimedia files, everything will depend on how you have configured their download. If these are automatically downloaded to the mobile photos, they will not self-destruct. To make them disappear as well, you must disable automatic download.
How to activate temporary messages
On both Android and iPhone, you must open the WhatsApp chat by touching the name of the contact and then “Temporary messages”. If prompted, click “Continue” and then select the “Activated” option. To deactivate them you will have to do the reverse path.
To activate or deactivate the messages that self-destruct in the groups you must do the same, but you will only have that option if you are the administrator.
