WhatsApp users can now ghost group chats and delete messages for days
WhatsApp's latest updates support increased privacy and second-thoughts.
A handful of new features included in WhatsApp’s latest update should hopefully put at least some socially anxious users’ minds at ease. Yesterday, the popular messaging platform announced that it soon plans to allow people a 60 hours “unsend” window for deleting texts, along with the ability to silently leave your group chats. New features also include an “online presence control” allowing users to utilize the app without being visible to contacts, as well as the option to block recipients from taking screenshots of “view-once messages.”
Although WhatsApp is far from the most popular messaging platform in the US, it’s ranked as the unequivocally preferred texting service for rest of the world, with two billion monthly users. WhatsApp first introduced a message “unsend” feature way back in 2017, but at the time users only had a seven-minute window to change their mind about a text. The service later increased that time-cap to the oddly specific one-hour-and-eight minutes, before establishing its new, rounded 60-hour deadline. As for the “online presence control,” the customizable addition will allow users to choose which contacts can actually see when they are online. There’s no maximum number to the VIP list, and users can swap people out anytime they chose.
It’s unclear if the app additions will win back any of the users WhatsApp lost last year after augmenting its privacy policy to share more personal data with its parent company, Meta. While the resultant backlash pressured the company to extend the deadline for opting into the new policy, many people still chose to migrate over to rival, privacy-oriented messaging apps like Signal and Telegram. But even if some of users opt to give WhatsApp another try, it won’t stop the European Commission’s ongoing formal investigation into consumer protections issues surrounding the platform.
