View Once feature will keep the images accessible for a maximum of 14 days and expire afterward.
It’s quite amusing that Facebook has claimed to allow users ‘more control over their privacy,’ by adding a Snapchat-inspired View Once mode? It’s Facebook, after all– the only social networking platform that’s not believed to be too concerned about user privacy.
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But, all those grudges against Facebook aside, the View Once feature is a fresh new addition to WhatsApp that will make the content disappear from your phone. The new feature was a part of the beta version of WhatsApp, but now it will be available to a broader audience.
Here’s what Facebook has to say about this new feature:
“Today we’re rolling out new View Once photos and videos that disappear from the chat after they’ve been opened, giving users, even more, control over their privacy. As with all the personal messages you send on WhatsApp, View Once media is protected by end-to-end encryption so WhatsApp cannot see them.”
About View Once
Usually, the media content such as images or videos we receive on WhatsApp is stored in the device’s Camera Roll. This feature, in simple words, will make that photo or video that the recipient has viewed once disappear and become ephemeral. Until now, all media content, from photos to videos, was stored on our devices permanently.
But with the introduction of the View Once feature, WhatsApp has allowed the sender to maintain considerable control over how long they intend to retain it on the recipient’s device. And, it’s not only beneficial for the sender. The recipient will also benefit as they won’t need to delete the content to clear up the storage manually.
Therefore, you won’t need to worry about precious storage space occupied by the content you don’t want to view again. The media a sender chooses to share as View Once will be labeled with a one-time icon.
How Long Will The Content Remain Accessible?
View Once will keep the images accessible for a maximum of 14 days, and they will expire afterward. However, WhatsApp has stated that it won’t let anyone know if they take a screenshot or captures the image using a physical camera. This new feature is rolled out for Android and iOS devices, but it’s only available on the latest WhatsApp version.
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It must be noted that the recipient will be unable to star, save, forward, or share the media sent as a view once image/video. Once the content has been viewed, it will be marked Opened in read receipts feature is enabled. According to Facebook, this will prevent confusion about the status of the media.
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