WhatsApp could improve the dynamics of temporary messages with new configuration options.
Although configuring a chat in WhatsApp so that messages are automatically deleted is easy, we do not have many options to configure the period of time. A problem that could soon have a solution.
When we configure temporary messages in a chat we find three options to configure the duration, ranging from 24 hours, 7 days to 90 days. While they are distinct time periods, they may not meet your needs. For example, you might want to have a chat with messages that are deleted in an hour, since you don’t want the conversations to persist.
Or you may want messages to be deleted every 2-3 months, as a scheduled cleanup, so you don’t have to deal with a huge chat history. Although at the moment we cannot apply these dynamics, WhatsApp plans to fix it in a future update.
As mentioned in WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is working to include 15 new options in “message duration”, so that the user has more control over this configuration. The time period options we know will continue to be maintained, but “More options” will be added with a drop-down menu to choose other alternatives.
For example, we can configure that temporary messages are deleted in 1, 3, 6 and 12 hours, beyond the 24 hours that we have as the first option in the current menu. Or we can choose to delete them after 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 days, if it is 7 days it does not suit our needs.
And if we want a longer period of time, we can choose between 14, 21, 30, 60 and 180 days, without forgetting to mention the current 90 days. Or we can directly configure that the messages are deleted after one year. At the moment, they are not options that we can find in the WhatsApp settings, but it is possible that they will be added in one of the 2023 updates.
