[2 Ways] How To Send Disappearing Messages On WhatsApp

While most of our WhatsApp talks are with families and friends and we don’t need all messages to be kept forever. Sometimes we send messages or photos that we want to disappear after some time. Well, you can use the ‘Delete for everyone‘ option but you have to do it manually by yourself for every single message.

Luckily, WhatsApp gives two methods to send self-destructing messages. Moreover, you can use the Disappearing messages feature or the view once mode feature. Check both the two ways mentioned below.

Additional Reading: [Android] How To Read Deleted WhatsApp Messages Someone Sent You

Way 1: Use Disappearing Messages Feature To Send Disappearing Messages on WhatsApp

The Disappearing messages feature of WhatsApp works for both personal and group chat messages. With the help of this feature, you can send self-destructing messages. Any video, image, text, GIF, sticker, etc., that you send while using the Disappearing messages feature, the messages will disappear at the time that you have set. You have the option to select messages disappear after 24 hours, 7 days, 90 days of sending them.

To activate disappearing messages individually on Android and iPhone, follow the mentioned steps given below:

1. Open WhatsApp chat where you want to activate the Disappearing messages feature.

2. Click on the Contact’s name located at the top. It shows the contact info then scroll down and click on the Disappearing messages. Alternatively, tap on 3 dots located at the top right corner and tap on Disappearing messages.

(Pic Credit: Techwiser)

3. Then, you have the option to choose the time after which messages should disappear from the conversation.

(Pic Credit: Techwiser)

4. Once you choose the ideal time, then a message will show up in the chat, that informs the members that disappearing messages have been activated. You will also see the Disappearing messages icon (clock) on the person’s profile picture. So, others will also see when you activate Disappearing messages on WhatsApp.

Note: Repeat the same steps and choose “Off” in step 3 to disable Disappearing messages.

Additional Reading: [WhatsApp Help] – Change/Remove Emoji Reaction

Things To Remember

All the members can turn ON or turn Off the Disappearing messages feature.
The Disappeared messages will not leave any hint in the chat unlike the “This message was deleted” message that shows up when you delete the message.
Usually, media sent in the chat will vanish when disappearing messages was enabled. But if the auto-download for media is enabled, then the images would have been downloaded on your gallery, so that photos will remain in your gallery and will not be deleted from the gallery.
Admins have the ability to restrict the feature to Turn ON or Off Disappearing messages to admins only by going to Group Settings > Edit Group info. Select only admins.
Receivers of the messages can take screenshots of disappearing messages and you will not get any notification about it.
Old messages would not affect when you enable Disappearing messages the older messages remain the same.

Additional Reading: How To Recover Deleted WhatsApp Messages On Android

Way 2: Use View Once Feature To Send Disappearing Photos or Videos On WhatsApp

The first method makes disappear everything in the chat. But sometimes we want to vanish only photos and videos from the chat. Luckily, WhatsApp gives another feature known as View Once to make disappear only photos or videos. With the help of this feature, you can send photos or videos and the View Once feature will automatically delete them after the other person sees it. In this feature, you don’t have the option to set a time period. And, you will have to enable it every single time you want to send self-destructing videos and images.

While using this feature the other things like stickers, messages, GIFs, will not affect and remains the same. To enable this feature on Android and iPhone follow the mentioned steps given below.

Open the particular chat and send a self-destructing photo or video.
On Android, click on the Paperclip (attachment) icon and tap on the Gallery option.

(Pic Credit: Techwiser)

On iPhone, click on the (+) add icon and choose Photo & Video Library.

(Pic Credit: Techwiser)

Choose the video or photo you want to send.
Then you have the photo preview screen. Here click on the (1) icon at the bottom to activate the view once mode. Tap the send button to send the photo.

(Pic Credit: Techwiser)

Once the receiver looks at the photo/videos, it will vanish automatically from the chat and they won’t see it again.

(Pic Credit: Techwiser)

Things To Remember

When the View Once feature is enabled the sent photo will not get saved in the phone’s gallery.
While using the View Once feature, WhatsApp doesn’t send a notification if the other person takes a screenshot of a photo or video.
The view once features not support GIFs, documents, or stickers. It only supports videos and photos.

People Also Ask

Question 1 – WhatsApp Disappearing Messages VS View Once

Answer – When you use the Disappearing messages feature everything disappears in the chat. But in the View once mode only selected photos or videos get disappeared. Also, in the Disappearing messages feature you can set time period but it’s not same with the View once mode. Last of all the Disappearing messages feature can be disabled by others but it’s not same with the View once mode.

Question 2 – How To Delete or Unsend a WhatsApp Message?

Answer – Tap and hold the message you want to delete. On Android, tap the trash icon and choose Delete for everyone. On iPhone, click on the delete button and tap the Delete icon. Then select Delete for everyone.

Wrap Up

WhatsApp gives many other amazing features and also many hidden features that are similar to the ability to send Disappearing messages. In this article, I mentioned the two unique features of WhatsApp to send disappearing messages on WhatsApp.

If you find this article helpful then please share, as it can help others users as well.

Emily

Emily is a founder of recover-android-data.com. She loves to write tips, tricks, fixes for errors, data recovery solutions and more related to Android. Beside that, she also loves to travel, watch movies and play online games.

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