WhatsApp is again in news for introducing the disappearing messages feature titled ‘view once’ to iOS beta phones. Facebook-owned WhatsApp’s Disappearing Messages feature already exists for Android users and now WABetaInfo tells us that the company is all set to roll out its new feature for iOS beta users. The disappearing messages feature is quite like Snapchat’s feature, and if we go by the verdict of Mashable, the attached images or videos will automatically disappear after being seen so this will help hide confidential business information. When exactly has WhatsApp planned to execute this feature on target iOS beta users is yet unknown but is expected very soon as per reports. Moreover, WhatsApp has started to roll out the new feature to iOS beta users in a very phased fashion.
If you wish to know if your device is liable for the new feature, just look for a self-explanatory pop-up next time you send an image or clip. Reports also suggest that users will notice a blue-and-white ‘1’ icon in the caption text box. The WhatsApp beta testers have already welcomed this new feature. WABetaInfo also informed that all new messages will disappear from the sender’s as well as the recipient’s device automatically once it got opened. WhatsApp has been testing other new features too for some past months and some of them can now be seen in the new iOS beta updates. These include WhatsApp rolling out joinable calls, view once among others. This view once feature was also available for Android users previously but now WhatsApp wants to try it on the iOS beta version app.
Also, the joinable call feature will soon launch on the beta version of the Android app too as it now rests with iOS beta. Wabetainfo declared that WhatsApp has introduced the 2.21.140.11 beta update on TestFlight and the new update consists of a plethora of new features. Also, inside sources have discovered that WhatsApp is currently racking its brains on enhancing voice and video call quality. Another small feature is that now you can join the group video or audio calls on WhatsApp even in the mid of it. “If you temporarily ignore to participate in a group call, and you open WhatsApp again after some time, if the group call is still ongoing, WhatsApp might present you an alert if you want to quickly join the call, without asking other participants to add you again.
When there is a call you can join, you can find a “Tap to join” banner in the Calls tab and a “Join call” button in the group chat where the call is started,” the Wabetainfo report stated. With the view once feature, users of WhatsApp can take advantage of the Snapchat-like feature to send photos and videos that die immediately after the person has viewed them. Although the difference is that, unlike Snapchat, WhatsApp won’t notify you if someone took a screenshot or not, the beta version of Whatsapp tells us. The future of this feature is still not so predictable and it is in line for a stable rollout. After your media disappears, a text reading ‘Opened’ will occur. You can see more details like the time of delivery or seen under the Message Info option. Although if you activate this new feature, it won’t have any effect on the previously sent and received messages and media.
WABetaInfo also said that the disappearing messages feature suffers from some drawbacks too. For instance, it won’t tell if a screenshot of the image sent is taken or not so your sent image or media can stay beyond the auto-delete in the recipient’s phone. To add to that, even if you have disabled your read receipts, the sender will be able to see when you view their sent image or video. Also, if your blocked contacts share a group, they can still view your single-use attachments. So in the eye of all these, WhatsApp warns its users to proceed with this feature with responsibility because it won’t prevent your sent data from existing in screenshots and copy texts. So you will be responsible for your own activity if you decide to send sensitive information or awkward personal photos, etc.
The report by Wabetainfo also stated, “WhatsApp is now rolling out the feature that allows sending photos and videos that disappear from the chat after the recipient opens them once. If the feature is already available for your WhatsApp account, you will see a view once button while sending the media. Note that it’s still possible to save the media because WhatsApp doesn’t support a screenshot detection feature.” The View Once feature has many advantages as it will allow users to create timers for the messages, photos, as well as videos they share. View Once is another name for the disappearing messages feature as the sent media automatically disappears when the recipient opens the message. But there’s no way WhatsApp can inform you if your sent message is being screenshotted or not.
iOS beta users will be able to take advantage of this new feature among others soon enough. If you’re impatient, you can go to your App Store to update WhatsApp and see for yourself if the disappearing messages feature is enabled. This feature will work not only on texts but for photos, files, videos, audio, etc. According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp cannot notify users if their sent media was taken a screenshot from or not, because no way is yet discovered to prevent it from happening as there are many hacks to surpass all restrictions now. You can update the WhatsApp app from TestFlight, and try to see if your WhatsApp beta tester can send a photo or message and it gets disappeared or not in moments. Not only does it gets deleted from the recipient’s phone but also from the sender’s mobile after the receiver has opened it.
Also, the sender will be informed when the receiver opens his/her message as a pop-up will appear saying ‘Opened’. This View Once feature is very much like Instagram’s disappearing messages but the difference is while WhatsApp disappears messages automatically after 7 days of their arrival, Instagram on the other hand allows people to see text, video, and images only once before disappearing. Apart from the disappearing messages feature, WhatsApp is set to introduce other features too, one of them being multi-device support. It is said to let users log in to their WhatsApp accounts on multiple devices. This feature is reported to launch for WhatsApp web as well as for Desktop users soon. Yet another feature rolling out among these exciting ones is a new redesigned in-app notification.
It will hit the beta version of the iOS app first and with this feature, users will get more details under the notification section in the app as images, GIFs, videos, and stickers. Users can also enhance the in-app notification to show the chat preview: the chat preview is not static like the one that appears when you peek on a chat cell, so the user can scroll up and down the view to see older and newer messages. There is no info as to when this feature will be introduced globally or for desktop users for now.