New function in WhatsApp: After photos and videos, users can now also hide voice messages once they have been listened to.
With the update of its messenger, WhatsApp is introducing a new voice messaging functionality. Users can now send voice messages that automatically disappear after being listened to, WhatsApp developers announced in a blog post. Until now, automated self-destruction has only been possible for photos and videos.
Like view-only photos and videos, self-deleting voice messages are marked with an icon — “1” — and can only be listened to once.
How to send a self-deleting voice message:
- Open the WhatsApp chat
- Tap the microphone icon
- Record a voice message
- Press the “1” button.
- Send a voice message
WhatsApp wrote that, like text messages, voice messages are provided with “end-to-end encryption” by default. This means that third parties cannot read or listen to messages. Not even WhatsApp itself
After sending the voice message, the creator can no longer listen to the message. This works with voice messages without self-destructing.
The new offering of one-time voice messages is expected to be rolled out worldwide in the next few days.
WhatsApp makes protected chats invisible
WhatsApp developers recently released a function that allows chats to be kept confidential. To do this, users can move individual conversations to the Blocked Chats folder.
This folder is locked and can only be opened with your fingerprint, face scan, PIN, or pattern – depending on what you have set as your device lock.
When introducing chat blocking, WhatsApp said the additional protection for personal messages is for everyone who “shares their phone with other family members from time to time, or in situations where someone else grabs your phone while a chat message arrives at a private event.”
