The WhatsApp development team is continuing to work hard to maintain the perch at the top of the messaging pile. We recently saw a dark theme appear and now we’re finally seeing Snapchat style, self destructing messages in the beta build.
Our usual cautionary tale on accessing beta app builds applies here. While developers will make every effort for apps to be ready for general use when they release a public beta test, it is possible that some features may be unfinished or simply not work. We recommend not using beta builds on apps you’re critically reliant up on daily
WhatsApp Beta Info has done the digging on the latest version of the Beta app showing options to have messages automatically deleted. The options shown indicate periods of 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month and 1 year. Although there is no indication if this is from delivery, or from the message being seen.
The feature is set for use in both group chats and for individual chats. Being a beta build, we don’t know when – or even if – this will appear in the stable release. WhatsApp is pretty good with feature delivery though, so it would be reasonable to expect that we may see this on stable release in the coming few months.
With Facebook owned WhatsApp, nothing is truly ever gone…