WhatsApp to roll out disappearing voice messages soon, boost users' privacy

WhatsApp has been offering a similar 'view once' capability for photos and videos from 2021.

WhatsApp announced on December 7 that it is adding support for disappearing voice messages in a bid to bolster the privacy of user conversations on the app.

The new feature, which is rolling out globally in the next few days, will allow users to send a voice message that can be listened to only once before it disappears. WhatsApp has been offering a similar 'view once' capability for photos and videos from 2021.

These messages will be marked with the “one-time” icon to indicate to the listener that they can only be played one time, WhatsApp said. One cannot forward, save, star, or share these voice messages.

WhatsApp's disappearing messages will be clearly marked with the “one-time” icon to indicate to the listener that it can only be played one time

The company said this feature will be useful across various use cases, including reading out credit card details to a friend or sharing sensitive information over voice messages when planning a surprise among others. These voice messages are protected with end-to-end encryption by default, it said.

In recent months, WhatsApp has added a slew of new features to bolster the privacy and security of users on its messaging platform.

In May, it debuted a Chat Lock feature to help users password-protect specific private conversations. Later, in November, it introduced a secret code to Chat Lock to help users protect their most sensitive conversations.

One can set their locked chats to only appear when the user types the secret code in the search bar so that no one else can unintentionally discover these messages.

In April, the Meta-owned messaging app also introduced a slew of features to strengthen its security offerings. This includes automated security codes, device verification, and extra checks while moving accounts to another device.

Whenever users want to move their WhatsApp accounts to a new device, a feature called Account Protect will now ask them on the old device to verify whether they want to take this step as an extra security check, to alert any unauthorised attempt to move the account to another device.