WhatsApp keeps coming with new updates to make the user experience easier and wonderful. WhatsApp had introduced disappearing messages in 2020 which were only working for the one on one chats. As per the latest update, an Expiring Groups feature is now in the works as it was spotted in the TestFlight app with version WhatsApp beta for iOS 23.5.0.070.
You will be able to find the feature under the setting specific for the group settings. It will also help you pick an expiration time frame – a day, a week or a custom date. But the users should know that it is not for other members of the group, while this is under the group settings, it only applies to your own messages.
So, the other participants in the group have to set expiration dates, else their messages will remain in the group even after they have been seen. But know that you can always cancel the expiration at any point and if you forget, WhatsApp will remind you to confirm the expiration date before deleting your messages.
This setting can help declutter your WhatsApp account. This enables the old, no longer relevant groups to automatically get scrubbed, giving you more storage for your account.
This setting is perfect to create a group chat for a specific event like birthday parties, dinner nights, sudden night outs, etc. These groups become useless but remain there until the group owner deletes it or all members leave. Thus the Expiring Groups setting will help the creator set a deadline to delete the group.
The feature is currently under development and will soon be released for the users in future update. Even with the latest beta version of WhatsApp, users may not be able to see the new Expiring Groups option for now.
In addition to Expiring Groups, WhatsApp has also been working on options to edit sent messages, a new newsletter feature that will help distribute messages to a large number of users.
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