WhatsApp launches self-destructing messages around the world

Ephemeral messages reach everyone. They are destroyed after 7 days. In group chats, administrators can activate them. Here's how

WhatsApp introduces ephemeral messages (photo: WhatsApp) Whatsapp will launch its self-destructing messages worldwide by November, or ephemeral as they prefer to call them in the company. “Our goal is to make conversations on WhatsApp look as similar as possible to those that happen in person. This means that they do not necessarily have to be kept forever ”, explains WhatsApp in the blogpost presenting the new tool.

To enable it, simply select the name of a contact, press Ephemeral Messages and select Yes. The function will only concern messages sent after activation, it will delete them after seven days but will not delete those received or sent before. If for chats with individual contacts the function must be activated by the account holder, within a group chat only the administrators will be able to use this tool.

The WhatsApp team has decided to set the self-destruct time of messages to 7 days since according to them it is "an adequate time interval to allow users not to lose their thread and access the messages they need". ephemeral, in addition to automatically eliminating some information, will help keep chats lighter by making messages disappear after 7 days from their sending. The deletion will also affect the multimedia files that will be visible only temporarily but will be saved on the phone only if the automatic download settings are active