WhatsApp Adds Feature To Let Messages Self-Destruct After 7 Days

Facebook, Inc's FB popular messaging app WhatsApp has added the ephemeral messaging functionality, the company said.

What Happened: WhatsApp will allow marked messages, including pictures and videos, to disappear after seven days.

TechCrunch reports that the company is rolling out the feature globally across Android and iOS starting today.

WhatsApp is starting with the seven-day day lifespan but will take user feedback to see if it needs adjustment in the future.

The message will disappear seven days after sending regardless of it being read or not. "The way it's currently designed is to give the sender confidence that after 7 days their message is gone," a WhatsApp spokesperson said.

Why It Matters: WhatsApp sees 100 billion messages exchanged every day, and users would not want them to stick forever.

This disappearing messages feature will work after turning it on in the settings and won't affect the existing messages. Messages will hang around if it is saved on the phone before disappearing, or if someone takes a screenshot of it, WhatsApp has clarified.

Ephemeral messaging has existed in popular apps like Snap Inc SNAP-owned Snapchat as a runaway privacy feature. 

WhatsApp also announced a new storage feature earlier this week to allow users to control how phots and other media lives in the phone -- TechCrunch.

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