HIGHLIGHTS
- WhatsApp ‘Delete Messages’ is coming soon for group chats.
- The option will offer preset time options for self-destructing messages on groups.
- The feature won’t make it to individual chats.
WhatsApp has become inseparable and WhatsApp groups have made having the app on your phone a basic necessity these days. To make communication among group messages easier, the WhatsApp development team has kept on adding features and refining the existing ones. We have seen replying to specific messages, restricting control over adding new people, stickers and moreover the course of time. However, WhatsApp is about to get another feature that will change the way we communicate on groups.
According to a recent scoop from WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is bringing the ability to auto-destruct messages on WhatsApp groups. The recent test versions of WhatsApp have received a new feature for both Android and iOS, called ‘Delete Messages.’ Initially, this feature was expected to be available for both individual chats and group chats. However, the feature will be limited to group chats only and it will make it easy for group admins.
The ‘Delete Messages’ feature will be available for group chats and it will make it easy for the admins to manage old messages and chats. WhatsApp messages take up space on devices as well as increase the size of online backups. Since group chats have a lot of exchanges, old messages at times become irrelevant and it becomes sensible to delete them after a while. So far, users had to delete messages manually and that is a tedious process.
However, with the Delete Messages feature, group admins can now select a specific duration for messages on the group and once a message crosses the specified duration, it will be automatically deleted by the app. Users will be able to keep messages for as little as an hour and for as long as a year.
Weirdly, the feature won’t make it to individual chats and that could be a bummer for users. However, for group chats, it can reduce the old message bulk and get rid of all those pesky good morning GIFs and images.
The feature is still currently in testing and it could be a while before the feature makes it to the stable version. Do note that this feature is different from the ‘Delete for Everyone’ feature that already exists for all chats. The ‘Delete for Everyone’ feature will still be available for all messages and users can still use it to delete a text before the receiver sees it.
