Viber to introduce self-destructing ‘Secret Chats’ feature

Messaging app Viber has introduced a new feature called ‘Secret Chats’ which allows conversations with advanced privacy elements that users have complete control over. 

“Having a messaging app that connects you to the people you care about is great – unless you feel like you can’t talk about everything you want,” said Shai, Content and Social Media Manager, said in blog post.

Secret Chats allows users to set a self-destruct timer for every message in the conversation. However, all communication will continue to be protected by Viber’s end-to-end encryption.

The messages in a secret chat cannot be forwarded and screenshots are either totally unavailable or alerted by an instant notification in the chat screen.

Viber had introduced end-to-end encryption as the default protocol for all Viber messages and calls last year.

“Still, in some situations, we want more than encryption. We want to go under the radar,” said Shai adding that the added security measure would bring  “peace of mind” to users.

Secret Chats are another way Viber users can choose to connect freely and securely.

Users have two simultaneous conversations with the same person or group, regular and secret,  can differentiate as the secret group will have a lock badge on it.

Further more, starting a secret chat from an existing regular chat will not delete or replace the regular chat, but will just start a separate one.

The company said it will continue to bring features that will enable to communicate without limitation and hesitation.