Messaging platform WhatsApp has introduced two forms of ephemeral messages over the years. One is View Once messages, which locks messages from being read beyond the initial instance, with the other being Disappearing Messages, which cleans out chat histories after a set amount of time. It looks like the platform is now testing a version that’s a mix of the two.
WABetaInfo claims to have seen the feature in action in the iOS 26.19.10.72 update, available via the TestFlight app. On Android, the site reports that the feature was spotted a month ago. As mentioned, this feature essentially lets you make disappearing messages linger for a while after initially being read. Though it looks like you don’t get granular control over this amount of time. From the screenshots of the feature, you only get a choice of five minutes, an hour, or 12 hours.
While the outlet does not specify where this feature is accessed, the aforementioned screenshots, it looks to be a subfeature of Disappearing Messages in general. In the background of the three aforementioned time options for when a message disappears after reading, you can clearly see the default timers for Disappearing Messages. It may seem a tad redundant, setting faster timers onto a feature that already makes messages disappear after a while. But if nothing else, this can be used to put an even shorter timer onto messages, for those who are already so inclined..
As usual, the report mentions that the feature is being rolled out to some beta testers with access to the iOS beta update via TestFlight. With that, not all beta testers will be able to test the feature out for themselves. It will probably be awhile before the general WhatsApp userbase gets access to this.
(Source: WABetaInfo)
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