It’s worth considering before sending a risky WhatsApp text that disappearing message is now more optional. Mark Zuckerberg announces an update to the service’s Burn-After-Reading feature. This allows recipients to choose whether to keep a message by long-pressing it.
WhatsApp describes this adjustment as a “sender superpower,”, and as long as it works as intended, the sender is still in control of the final outcome. The reason is that the sender receives a notification if a recipient attempts to save the message. They can then decide whether the message will be deleted or saved.
The company’s blog states that this allows senders to “veto”, or refuse, a recipient’s attempts to save a message. If you decide that your message cannot be saved by anyone else, this is your final decision. No one can save it and the message will disappear when the timer expires.
You can save messages that you receive if the sender agrees. The message will be marked with a bookmark icon and appear in your saved messages.
In the coming weeks, this feature will be available globally.
You can now bookmark an old message or media to be able to access it later. When you do this, the sender is notified and will need to approve your action. The message will expire if they do not give their consent.
WhatsApp implements this feature in a way that does not compromise the privacy and security of disappearing messages. The final decision on whether a message can be saved will always rest with the sender.
You can also save messages by adding a bookmark icon to the chat. This will make them visible both to you and their original sender. You can also access them in the Kept Messages section, which is organized by conversations.
WhatsApp was working on a veto to stop disappearing messages back in May 2022. The Meta-owned messaging app was also recently found to be working on fifteen new time duration options for disappearing message . However, these are not included in today’s announcement.