WhatsApp is preparing a group message self-destruct feature. The option was spotted by the Wabetainfo site a few weeks ago. While we expected it to come in the form of Snapchat's ephemeral messages, the feature actually has a whole other purpose.
WhatsApp is about to welcome a new feature. And as often, it was spotted in the beta version of the application pending a large-scale deployment. Soon you will be able to schedule messages to auto-delete after a certain time : an hour, a day, a week, a month or even a year.
Initially, this feature which was equated with Snapchat-inspired ephemeral messages but breaking news, WhatsApp is considering it as a group message cleanup option. Clearly, it is not intended for individual chats with your contacts but only for discussions in the discussion forums
In any case, this option will be very practical and will allow you to regularly free up storage space. Indeed, group messages can very quickly pile up with multitudes of media (images, audio, videos) which unnecessarily occupy the internal memory. WhatsApp automatically downloads images by default and this extends to videos when you are connected to a WiFi network.
Also read: WhatsApp – the hidden features that will make your life easier
Rather than performing a manual cleanup, you'll soon have the ability to schedule automatic deletion of messages and media with it. According to WaBetaInfo, WhatsApp will give administrators the option to enable or disable the option. Clearly, the participants in the discussion forums will be dependent on the choice of the latter. However, it is possible that the functionality will evolve in the meantime before the general deployment, the date of which is currently unknown.
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