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WhatsApp is introducing a new feature that will allow users to keep their disappearing messages in a conversation thread if the sender grants permission.
This may seem to defeat the point of the messages being deleted – but in some cases, it is possible that a message is of sufficient importance to the recipient that it is acceptable for them to keep a copy.
“Today we’re introducing ‘Keep in Chat’, so you can hang on to texts you need for later, with a special superpower for the sender. To make this work, the sender will be notified when someone keeps a message, and the sender will have the ability to veto the decision. If you’ve decided your message can’t be kept by others, your decision is final, no one else can keep it and the message will be deleted when the timer expires. This way you have the final say on how messages you send are protected.” – Whatsapp explained
So the new update gives senders the choice of permitting the other party to retain the message or deleting it forever. People can still take screenshots and take pictures of the messages, so it does make sense to include this native capacity, even though it does somewhat conflict with the idea of disappearing messages. WhatsApp added the option for disappearing messages in 2020, which was once a key feature on Snapchat.
Disappearing Messages
The ephemeral element gave Snapchat an edge over other social media apps in its initial days. Today, however, virtually every messaging app had added an ephemeral element, in order to provide more privacy and engagement options.
Again, with various options already existing to capture messages and conversations anyway even if they are set to disappear, it’s probably good for WhatsApp to add this as an in-stream option, with the additional sender control tools.
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