Can WhatsApp kill Snapchat with THIS feature?

Popular messaging platform WhatsApp has been working on the ‘Disappearing Messages’ feature for quite some time now. The Facebook-owned giant has now finally started rolling out the feature for users in India. The feature is available on both Android as well as iOS. 

Similar to Snapchat, users will be able to decide the duration of the message, after which it will be deleted from the chat.

As per the WABetaInfo, WhatsApp has been testing the ability to set messages to disappear after 24 hours which was earlier under development.

This feature is available on both individual and group chats. While for one-to-one chats any person can enable the feature, group chats would need the admins to do the deed. 

Currently, WhatsApp is giving a time duration of seven days for the disappearing messages which basically means users cannot set a custom time for the messages to vanish. Once the feature is enabled, messages sent going forward will automatically vanish for both parties after seven days. 

This feature will have the disclaimer that messages have disappeared from the chat. Even though the messages disappear after seven days, they will still be visible in the notifications preview if the chat hasn’t been opened yet. Quoted messages will also remain in the chat even after they’ve disappeared and this applies to forwarded messages as well.