WhatsApp has started testing “view once” messages on iOS. As the name implies, these will be messages that you send and can only be viewed once by the recipient. After they viewed them once, the messages will disappear.
To enable the functionality you will just need to long-tap on the Send button, which will then present you with the option to “Send as view once”. Engage that and you’re done.
WhatsApp initially started testing this feature on Android earlier this month, and now the same is happening on iOS. The view once option is already available for photos, videos, and voice messages, but now WhatsApp is working on expanding it to text messages as well. With that, everything will be covered.
View once text messages will work in both one-to-one chats and group chats. They won’t however be available in channels. The new feature isn’t currently available in a public beta, it’s just being internally tested by WhatsApp developers. This new view once functionality is different from what was uncovered in May – that feature allows you to have a message ‘expire’ after a set amount of time. The one revealed today just lets people view a message once and then it’s gone.