Once again inspired by the features present on Snapchat, WhatsApp is now working on a new option that will allow you to save ephemeral messages before they disappear.
WhatsApp has been offering its users to send ephemeral messages since 2020, allowing you to have particular chats that automatically disappear after several days. According to reports from WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is now experimenting with a feature that would allow you to prevent some of these messages from disappearing.
Indeed, our colleagues have managed to take a screenshot ofa new section called “saved messages” on the latest beta version of the WhatsApp app. This is located below the contact information, and like on Snapchat, it should house any ephemeral messages that users have decided to save.
WhatsApp wants to prevent messages from permanently disappearing
This feature was spotted in the beta version of WhatsApp for Android (v2.22.7.4). The ability to keep messages that are meant to be temporary might help some users better remember important information that might be communicated on the ephemeral conversation, but might also annoy other users.
Indeed, some users use the ephemeral chat precisely so that their messages are not saved. With this new feature, imagine that the sender will be notified if the recipient decides to keep a messagebut this could well lead to situations where users no longer wish to send ephemeral messages for fear that they will be retained by the other party.
Anyway, the new Kept Messages section is still under development, so it’s unclear when it will be available to all users. As is often the case, it will probably take wait several months before this new feature reaches the stable version of the application.
Late last year, WhatsApp made some changes to its ephemeral messages. For example, users can enable ephemeral messages on all of their conversations by default. New fade-out times are also available. Rather than messages all disappearing after 7 days, you can also set a 90-day delay before they are deleted.
Source: WABetaInfo