The temporary messages of WhatsApp are used for send a text, photo or video with private content that you don’t want to leave a specific conversation. It may contain a private image or sensitive information. Precisely for prevent that content get out of there, the message is temporary. That is, after a while disappears from the device that has received the image or video. However, if it is a photo, whoever receives it can take a screenshot. Or so it was until now, when WhatsApp couldn’t block screenshots.
But with the August updates for WhatsApp, both on Android and iPhone, Facebook has decided to incorporate new features for better protect privacy of our messages or of what we do or do not do in this instant messaging app. And one of those novelties is, precisely, what happens with the temporary messages.
Sending temporary WhatsApp messages is fine because they disappear instantly. But, of course, if the recipient can take a screenshot or record the video with their phone’s recording function, useless The message is temporary. Hence the ability to block screenshots.
block screenshots
The good news is that you don’t have to do anything to get this new feature. Only keep up to date your version of WhatsApp. It is a function enabled by default that you don’t need to configure manually. And, therefore, it cannot be deactivated either. As explained by the specialized media WABetaInfoblock screenshots works on temporary WhatsApp messages that contain photographs and videos. When this is the case, when trying to take a screenshot or start a recording, a message will appear indicating that the capture has been blocked for privacy reasons.
However, at the moment this block does not affect temporary WhatsApp messages that contain text. Or to normal conversations. You also won’t get a warning if someone has tried to make a capture your messages. something that should happen in future versions of WhatsApp to know if the person who receives our temporary messages is trustworthy or not.
Finally, a recommendation for your safety. remember that, although WhatsApp temporary messages have an expiration date, they are not 100% secure. Not even adding this feature to block screenshots. As explained in WABetaInfo, if someone has a second device with a camera at hand, they could easily take a screenshot or record the received video. And you would not know until you see that content published. In summary, it is appropriate be very careful when sending temporary messages because a text, image or video They can fall into the wrong hands due to carelessness.
Activate temporary WhatsApp messages
Temporary WhatsApp messages can be set to disappear after 24 hours, 7 days or 90 days. They can be activated, separately, in various chats or conversations. But it is worth knowing that “new messages sent in the chat will disappear after the duration selected. The most recent selection will affect new chat messages, however messages sent or received before activation of the temporary messages will not undergo any change”.
For Activate temporary messages in an individual chat, you have to open WhatsApp, enter that conversation, tap the name of the contact and then tap on temporary messages. Finally, you will have to choose the expiration period (24 hours, 7 days or 90 days). You will also need to choose which chats to activate the function of message expiration.
And to deactivate this function, you will have to repeat the same process. But after clicking on temporary messages you will see the option deactivated. Tap there and then select which chats to disable the feature on.
