Every WhatsApp user urged to change settings today – don’t wait to do it

WHATSAPP has made it much easier to make your messages vanish.

It’s now possible to set default Disappearing Messages for new and existing chats at the same time.

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That means you can easily wipe your texts from history automatically.

And it will work across the chats you already have – as well as new conversations you create.

The update was announced in a post to Twitter, where WhatsApp wrote: “Setting Disappearing Messages just got easier!”

Previously you had to turn on Disappearing Messages for individual chats in the app.

But now it’s possible to turn them all on with ease.

It’s a clever feature: it automatically “unsends” your texts after a certain amount of time.

You can choose either 24 hours, seven days or 90 days.

Any new messages in those chats will delete after the set amount of time.

It adds a fantastic layer of privacy that you should consider turning on immediately.

There are a couple of catches.

Your old messages won’t be deleted – the ones you sent before activating the feature.

And it’s not watertight either: someone could still save copies of your texts.

There’s no way to 100% guarantee someone doesn’t save screengrabs or message logs somewhere else.

So if you’re nervous about having a record of a text message, consider not sending it in the first place.

How to enable disappearing messages on WhatsApp

First open your WhatsApp chat.

Then tap the contact’s name, tap Disappearing Messages, and then choose Continue.

Select the time period.

Choose which chats to enable.

Tap the tick and then select Done.

You can disable these settings at any time if you’d rather keep your texts intact.

Just change the setting to Off.

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