After introducing the possibility of silencing chats forever, and not just for a year at the most, WhatsApp announces further news on the messaging client. Among these we will have the possibility to activate and deactivate the so-called ephemeral messages , or messages that will have the peculiarity of disappearing after 7 days from sending. Among the novelties there is also a new occupied space management tool , which will allow users to manage saved contents from the app.

Both news had already been spotted on the beta versions of the WhatsApp client and are certainly not an absolute novelty in the messaging sector. However, the willingness of the WhatsApp team to keep up with the times is clear, with the app that in recent years has followed several trends from static and animated stickers, to calls and video calls. The last is that of ephemeral messages, which have been explained in detail on the official website of the service.

Here we read that to send “temporary messages” on WhatsApp, these must be activated for each individual conversation : “ When this option is active, new messages sent in the individual chat will no longer be visible after seven days “, reads the post. “ The most recent selection checks all messages in the chat, but does not affect messages sent or received before you have activated ephemeral messages”. Unlike what happens on other services, the user cannot set the duration of the messages on the chat, which is always 7 days.

How to activate ephemeral messages on WhatsApp

To explain the procedure to activate the Ephemeral messages on WhatsApp is the same company: it is necessary to enter the individual conversation, tap the contact name in the header at the top, then press on Ephemeral messages and accept the app requests. After having activated them, it is clearly possible to deactivate them at any time at the user’s complete discretion.

The function can also be enabled in group chats, but in this case only administrators can to do it. In this case if a contact does not open WhatsApp for seven days the message will disappear . However, the preview of the message may still be visible in the notifications until Whatsapp is opened. Those who reply to an ephemeral message, the quoted text may remain visible in the chat even after seven days, as well as forwarded messages that will remain visible even after the seven days expiration.

note that ephemeral messages on WhatsApp could be used improperly by those who receive them. The recipient can in fact take a screenshot of the screen, copy the contents of the message before it is no longer visible, or take a photo of the screen with the message through an external device. However ephemeral, it is strictly recommended to use the feature with the utmost caution and only with truly trusted contacts .

Ephemeral messages on WhatsApp, when will they arrive?

The function should arrive in these hours on all clients, both on iOS and on Android, but it is a gradual update that could first reach certain devices, and then arrive in a matter of days on a massive scale.

WhatsApp Storage Management Tool

Coming up on WhatsApp there is also a system for managing content saved locally from the application. The feature can be reached both from the client conversations screen, when the space on the device is running out, and from the Settings in a new sub-menu called “Space Management” inside Space and data usage . The idea is to offer users a better view of how space is consumed by the various media shared with the service, in order to better manage storage and prevent WhatsApp from becoming a pachyderm inside the storage unit of the device used. .