Many mystery and spider-man movies are based on the premise that you can send messages that self-destruct, but you don’t have to be an international spy to do the same with your own texts.
In fact, most popular chat apps now include some sort of disappearing message feature, which means you don’t have to keep a permanent record of your conversation if you don’t want to. In fact, Signal, an encrypted messaging app, has made its disappearing message feature the default.
While having chat archives to look back on can be useful for sentimental and practical reasons (recipes, addresses, instructions, and so on), there are times when you’d rather nothing was saved. Here’s what you should do.
All of these apps have a caveat in that the people you’re communicating with can take screenshots of what you’ve said—or, if screenshots are blocked, they can take a photo of the screen with another device. Some promise to notify you if your messages are screenshotted or downloaded, but there is always a workaround. That’s something to consider when deciding who to chat with and how much information to share.
Signal
The Signal disappearing messages feature is an option for every conversation, and it is now available by default or by individual conversation: In any thread, you can toggle between disappearing and permanent messages at any time. Tap the top banner in any thread, then select Disappearing messages.
You have the option of retaining your messages for up to four weeks after they have been viewed (or choose Off to disable the feature). You can even set a custom timer—for example, you could tell a message to disappear in 60 seconds. When you change this setting, an alert appears in the chat, and anything you send after that follows the rules you’ve set.
Open the main app settings page and select Privacy and Default timer for new chats to set a default expiry time for messages in all your chats (under Disappearing messages). This applies to all future chats you start, not just the ones you already have on your phone.
For the time being, WhatsApp’s disappearing messages feature only works with images and videos, not text. The recipient has 14 days to view whatever you’ve sent them, and it disappears once viewed.
Open the conversation to which you want to send the picture or video clip, then tap the camera icon at the bottom to capture your content. Next to the send icon, you’ll see a small icon with a 1 in a circle—tap this to make your message a disappearing image or video.
You can include a caption with the photo or video, which will be deleted along with it. You won’t see it from your end once you’ve sent whatever it is: In the conversation thread, you’ll only see a Photo or Video entry with the small 1 icon next to it. Once viewed, the text will change to Opened.
Snapchat
Snapchat did not invent disappearing messages, but it did make them popular. Click on the second icon from the left along the bottom of the screen to access the chat tab. You can start a conversation with any contact from your main conversation list screen, or you can tap the compose icon (bottom right) if the person you want to talk to isn’t on screen.
Once the thread has been viewed, everything in it, including text and images, will vanish. Either party in a one-on-one conversation can choose to save something permanently by pressing and holding on to it—but you’ll notice if this happens because it will remain onscreen.
You can also go to the photo and video capture screen (which appears first when you switch to Snapchat), take an image or a video clip and then select who you want to send it to. Whatever you send will vanish as soon as it is viewed.
Messenger
Following Facebook’s rebranding to Meta, this app is now simply known as Messenger. The app is fully prepared for disappearing messages, which can include anything that regular chats do. These conversations are kept separate—you can’t have regular messages and disappearing messages in the same thread.
To start a chat, tap the compose button (top right), then toggle the padlock toggle switch (top right again) to enable secret conversations and disappearing messages. After that, you can select the contact or contacts with whom you want to communicate.
Everything you say in one of these chats is erased as soon as it is viewed. If you want to give people more time, tap the timer icon to the left of the send box—messages can be kept for up to a day after they’ve been viewed if you want them to.
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