WhatsApp has always allowed users to send messages that disappear after a certain period. However, the timer starts as soon as you hit send, not when the recipient reads the message. This means a message could remain unread for hours and still disappear before anyone has a chance to see it.
To address this issue, WhatsApp is testing a new feature called the “After Reading” timer for disappearing messages. This feature was discovered in the latest iOS beta update by WABetaInfo.
This feature is currently rolling out to some beta testers on iOS, after being tested on Android. It’s available through the TestFlight beta program, with a wider rollout expected in the coming weeks.
To better understand this new feature, it’s helpful to know how disappearing messages already work on WhatsApp. When you turn on disappearing messages in a chat, WhatsApp automatically deletes new messages after a set period.
You can currently select 24 hours, 7 days, or 90 days for the messages to vanish. This feature can be turned on for specific chats or applied globally across all your conversations.
What’s new about the “After Reading” option is that it adds an extra layer of smartness to this process. Instead of the countdown starting when you send the message, it begins when the recipient actually reads it.
You can set the message to disappear 5 minutes, 1 hour, or 12 hours after it is opened. If the recipient never opens the message, it will automatically vanish after 24 hours.
From the sender’s perspective, the message disappears 5 minutes after being sent, regardless of when the recipient reads it. From the recipient’s side, the countdown only starts once they view the message.
This “After Reading” feature is completely optional and is not enabled by default, so your existing conversations stay the same unless you choose to turn it on. You can also enable it on a per-chat basis, giving you flexibility on where to use it.
Recently, WhatsApp also introduced an Incognito Chat mode for Meta AI, where messages vanish as soon as you close the chat.