Here's more on WhatsApp's plan to allow people to keep disappearing messages

News
By
published
Whatsapp Group Message on iPhone X
Whatsapp Group Message on iPhone X (Image credit: Luke Filipowicz/iMore)

What you need to know

  • WhatsApp is working on a change to allow users to save disappearing messages.
  • A new interface will offer users somewhere to go to see all of their saved messages.

We'd already heard that WhatsApp was planning to make it possible for people to save disappearing messages for later and now a new report has more information on what that will look like once the feature is made available to everyone.

Disappearing messages have long been a way for WhatsApp users to have messages expire after a set amount of time. But as some have found out, sometimes those messages need to stick around longer than others — now, WhatsApp is working on a change that will allow people to save them from being deleted. According to a new WABetaInfo report, the change will see a new interface be added to contact info and group chat management screens.

As you can see in this screenshot, WhatsApp is planning to introduce a new section right within Contact Info and Group Info that lists all kept messages, so they can be easily read later: since everyone in the chat can decide to un-keep those messages, WhatsApp is now planning to make it easier to find them, so they are developing this section.

Whatsapa Beta Disappearing Messages Interface

Whatsapa Beta Disappearing Messages Interface (Image credit: WABetaInfo)

having a single location where people can go to see all of the saved messages within a single group or single-person chat makes a ton of sense, and while this feature isn't ready for primetime just yet we do know that it is in development. There is currently no telling when it will be rolled out, however.

WhatsApp is one of the best iPhone messaging apps around thanks to its cross-platform nature. It's a great way for people to stay in touch with others using non-Apple devices and its end-to-end encryption ensures message content is private, too.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.