To keep up with its competitors, WhatsApp regularly develops new features. The idea is that the application will get better and better through this, but in some cases it backfires.
This is also the case with a new feature that WhatsApp seems to be testing at the moment. Should the feature actually arrive, the company behind the app seems to be making the disappearing messages a little less good. Shame!
Messages disappearing
Disappearing messages were created to give users a little more privacy. WhatsApp makes it possible to have a message, over time, deleted automatically. Subsequently, no one is able to read or retrieve the message. Provided a screenshot is taken. Not entirely watertight, in other words.
You would expect WhatsApp to address this problem and come up with a solution. Nothing is further from the truth. In fact, the company will soon make it even easier to save messages that are only meant for a certain period of time. Sorry?
A new addition (Image: WABetaInfo)
Is WhatsApp screwing up itself?
The folks at WABetaInfo already knew that the feature was coming, but find it actually in a beta version of the app. From that update on, in conversations where disappearing messages are enabled, it is possible to use the Saved Messages section. This is an alternative to saved messages that you can tick with an asterisk.
Through this way, disappearing messages in a particular conversation can still be saved. Unlike the current functionality, they cannot leave the WhatsApp conversation. So forwarding them or finding them again in your general messages is not in it. While that is a good choice, it feels a bit like WhatsApp is negating its own functionality.
According to WABetaInfo, the feature is still under development at this time. Exactly when everyone will be able to use it is unknown at this time.