Very popular for privacy reasons, ephemeral messages disappear after a while. But you will now be able to save them… provided that their sender agrees, of course!
WhatsApp ephemeral messages are particularly useful when you want to have a confidential conversation, without leaving a written trace behind you – to organize a surprise birthday party for example. However, it may happen that you need to keep one in particular – textual or vocal – for later, and you are then very annoyed in this case!
To deal with this eventuality, Meta has just announced, in a blog post, that these messages may be kept so that you can consult them later. Of course, this will only be possible if the author of this message agrees! This is why he will have to give his authorization so that the recipient can save it. To do this, you must do a long press on the message in question, then press the bookmark icon in the horizontal bar at the top of the screen. The author of the message will then receive a notification on their smartphone from WhatsApp informing them that you wish to keep the message. It may or may not grant you permission. If he refuses, the message will disappear after the programmed delay, like any ephemeral message. If he accepts, it will be saved, bookmarked in the conversation and saved in the Saved Messages folder. You’ll need to exercise a bit of patience before you can take advantage of this feature, though, as it won’t be rolling out – globally – until the coming weeks.
As their name suggests, temporary messages are ephemeral: they automatically disappear after a certain period of time, both from the sender and from the recipient. On WhatsApp, they are deleted from the conversation after seven days, whether they have been read or not. Of course, temporary WhatsApp messages are optional: you can choose to activate them for an individual conversation – therefore with a particular contact – or in a group chat. Old messages – those exchanged before the option was activated – are not affected and are naturally kept indefinitely. This function is available on Android, iOS and on the web version since 2020.
As you understand, ephemeral messages are intended to enhance the confidentiality of certain conversations, but this is by no means an absolute guarantee. Meta – owner of WhatsApp – insists on this point: messages can persist beyond seven days. This is the case, for example, if a recipient makes a screenshot of the original message, if he quotes it or if he transfers it to a conversation… It is therefore better to reserve this function for automatic cleaning, or for conversations with people you trust.
On Android as on iOS, the activation of temporary messages is done individually, by conversation.
- Launch the WhatsApp application on your mobile and open a chat.
- Press the three small vertical dots at the top right of the screen to access the contextual menu of the conversation.
- In the small window that appears, tap Show contacts.
- Scroll through the contact options and tap Temporary messages.
- A message asking you to confirm that you want to start using temporary messages appears: press CONTINUE.
- On the next screen, check the box Activated.
- Temporary messages are then activated in the contact options:
- Repeat the operation on all the contacts for whom you want to activate temporary messages.
- If you want to disable ephemeral messages, repeat the procedure by going to the contact options again and press Disabled.
- The change immediately appears in the contact’s options.
It is entirely possible to activate temporary messages in a group chat. But this is a privilege granted only to the group administrator.
- Launch the WhatsApp app and open a group chat.
- Press the three small vertical dots, at the top right of the screen to access information about the group.
- In the small window that appears, tap Group info.
- Scroll through the group options and press Temporary messages to activate the option.
- A message asking you to confirm that you want to use temporary messages appears: press CONTINUE.
- On the next screen, check the box Activated.
- The activation of temporary messages is then visible in the group options.
- To disable ephemeral messages, repeat the procedure by going to the group options again and this time press Disabled.
- The modification is immediate.
