WhatsApp now lets you save 'disappearing' messages: Here's how
What's the story
You might want to think a little before you fire away a disappearing message on WhatsApp from now on. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced a feature that allows recipients of disappearing messages to keep them.
Do not worry, though, because the sender will still be in control of what happens to the message.
Let's see how this feature works.
Context
Why does this story matter?
WhatsApp introduced disappearing messages in 2020 for added privacy. Even though the platform offers end-to-end encryption, it won't help if the device or the person you are talking to is compromised.
Messages that vanish are helpful in such scenarios. However, there could be some disappearing messages which the sender or recipient might want to keep.
That's where the new feature comes in handy.
Feature
The sender will have veto power
WhatsApp's new feature is called 'Keep In Chat.' The company describes it as a "sender superpower."
If you're wondering why it is called a "sender superpower," well, the sender will decide whether the vanishing message stays or not.
In other words, the sender will have the ability to "veto" the recipient's decision to save a disappearing message.
How-to
Recipients have to bookmark the disappearing message
Let's see how this feature works. To save a disappearing message, you have to long-press a disappearing message first.
Then, choose the 'bookmark' option from the list of choices that appear when you long-press. When you do so, the sender will be notified about your action.
The ball is in the sender's court after that.
Sender
Sender will be notified about the recipient's action
The sender can decide to "keep" or "unkeep" the disappearing message in the chat. If they decide to keep it, the message will not disappear from the chat after the stipulated time.
On the other hand, if they choose to unkeep the message, no one will be able to keep it again. The message will disappear when the time expires.
Bookmark
Saved messages will appear in the 'Kept Messages' folder
If the sender approves the recipient's action, the message will have a bookmark icon on it. This will make it easy to identify the message.
To make it even simpler, saved disappearing messages will appear in the 'Kept Messages' folder. They will be organized by chat.
WhatsApp said the feature will be rolled out globally in the coming weeks.