What’s Up With WhatsApp’s New Disappearing Messages?

As of yesterday users of the Facebook owned WhatsApp are capable of sending disappearing messages to their friends. The messages take a week to disappear and the function will be available on iOS and Android systems. The messages will disappear whether they’ve been read or not and the countdown begins as soon as the message has been sent.

Users can enable the update via direct messages, however if it’s a group, the administrator of the group needs to turn on the function. It has been reported that even before the announcement WhatsApp users reported seeing Frequently Asked Questions on the disappearing messages going back to March of this year.

A spokesperson from WhatsApp said this in regards to future possibilities for the function: “We will keep an eye on feedback about how people are using it and liking it and see if it needs adjusting in the future,” he continued with: “For now we are starting with seven days, because it feels like a nice balance between the utility you need for global text based conversations and the feeling of things not sticking around forever.”