WhatsApp is experimenting with new ways to improve the utility of the disappearing messages feature. The messaging app was spotted experimenting with the ability to save messages that were about to vanish. When you send a disappearing message, you don’t want it to stay in the recipient’s inbox for more than a set amount of time. However, if you have the feature enabled, you may accidentally send an important message, which will then vanish because you have it enabled. In such cases, WhatsApp’s soon-to-be-announced “Keep the disappearing message” feature will come to your rescue.
Wabetainfo, which tracks all the latest happenings related to the messaging app, spotted the feature first. The report states that WhatsApp is developing a feature that allows keeping specific messages in the chat. As per the screenshot shared by the tipster, when you send a disappearing message, you will get a prompt asking if you want to keep the message in the chat. If you have previously saved a disappearing message, you can discard it later. “When you decide to keep the message, it won’t disappear from the chat after its expiration and the recipient can still see it, but they can delete it later,” the report stated.
According to Wabetainfo, the feature is still in its early stages of development, so it’s unclear whether WhatsApp will choose it for a stable release. If the feature is made available to a larger audience, many changes are expected. Before the release, the feature’s purpose may change, or the feature may be removed entirely.
On a related note, WhatsApp is testing the possibility to forward messages to only one group chat at a time. WhatsApp had previously rolled out an update that allowed users to forward messages to one chat at a time. WhatsApp had set limits on forwarded messages to constrain virality. This move was announced after WhatsApp started labeling the messages that are forwarded multiple times with double arrows.