WhatsApp Might Finally be Having Self-Destructing Messages

Telegram has done it. Gmail has done it. And now, it seems that the world’s most popular messaging app is finally cottoning on:

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, WhatsApp might finally be having self-destructing messages. About time.

So if you’re keen on keeping some WhatsApp-exclusive sexy time under wraps, or you’re on the constant lookout for FBI agents who might be stalking your conversations…

Well, this might just serve to relieve some of your security anxieties on the messaging platforms.

WhatsApp Might Finally be Having Self-Destructing Messages

According to The Verge, WhatsApp is creating a new feature that would surely appeal to all the security junkies out there:

A functionality that allows you to set your messages to self-destruct, after a set period of time.

According to WABetaInfo, the new feature first appeared in version 2.19.275 of the Android app and is apparently a lot more basic than other platform implementations. In its current form, WhatsApp lets you set messages to delete after either…

• 5 seconds
• 1 hour

With strictly no in-between permitted.

The feature also only seems to be available in group chats, where you’re required to have every message in the chat deleted after a certain amount of time.

There Might Yet Be Updates Though

For starters, the feature might not be available to everyone on the beta just yet. This is in accordance with WABetaInfo, who first uncovered the feature.

Also, WABetaInfo has speculated that the feature’s likely to be in the initial stages of development, with changes expected to be made over the course of time. Exact details on when the feature might be available for everyone, or what capabilities it will gradually adapt, however, are not known at the current time.

Not The First Messaging Platform To Adopt Such A Function

As mentioned above, WhatsApp is hardly the first messaging platform to adopt such a secretive functionality. Telegram, for one, has been using the feature for ages, with self-destructing messages available through the app’s Secret Chats feature.

And sometime last year, Gmail added a similar feature of its own in during its redesigning process.

So really, WhatsApp isn’t so much of the innovator this time around.

It’s cottoning on, really.

Nevertheless, such a feature will surely come in handy in the future, though for what purposes exactly…

Is really up to you to decipher.