WhatsApp has made a small — but very significant — change to its messaging platform that could stop people from listening back to your conversations.
It’s been over two years since WhatsApp, the world’s most popular messaging service with over two billion users worldwide, introduced the “View Once” functionality to automatically delete photos and videos after they’ve been viewed by the recipient. And now, the same protections are coming to audio messages.
Until now, voice messages would remain on the recipient’s phone forever. These could be saved, forwarded or shared elsewhere without the original sender even being aware.
Thankfully, that’s no longer possible, thanks to the protections afforded by the “View Once” functionality, which causes the entire voice message to disappear as soon as the recording has been listened to. It’s like the beginning of a Mission Impossible film every time you send a voice memo to friends or family.
Granted, it’s a little confusing that WhatsApp has stuck with the same “View Once” branding for its audio messages. But it makes sense to keep consistency across the messaging platform.
The “View Once” icon, the small grey circle with a “1” at its centre, will display on voice messages that will self-destruct at the end of the recording — so you’ll always be able to tell if you can listen to a recording multiple times
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“For reading out your credit card details to a friend, or when you’re planning a surprise, you can now also share sensitive information over voice message with added peace of mind,” WhatsApp announced in its blog post about the new feature. “For consistency with View Once photos and videos, View Once voice messages are clearly marked with the ‘one-time’ icon and can only be played one time.”
You can tell whenever a photograph, video, or voice memo has been set to “View Once” as it’ll have the icon (a grey circle with a “1” at the centre) on the message bubble. That way, you’ll always have plenty of warning that you’ve only got one chance to listen to the message before it’s gone forever.
When preparing to send your own voice notes, you’ll need to tap the “1” icon to the right of the waveform during the recording process. If it’s already been sent, it’s too late to change the status of the message.
As always, WhatsApp will be rolling out its latest feature incrementally over the coming weeks. Unlike the recent boost to photo quality on WhatsApp, which is only available on iPhone at the moment, the auto-destruct feature for voice messages is coming to iOS and Android concurrently.
WhatsApp is owned by Meta, the same parent company behind brands like Facebook and Instagram.
We’ve seen no shortage of exciting new updates for WhatsApp users in recent months, with shiny new desktop apps for both Windows and macOS, the ability to start the Voice Chats feature without ringing in large group chats, six new built-in reactions to reply to a WhatsApp Status, and more.
Laura Adams is a tech enthusiast residing in the UK. Her articles cover the latest technological innovations, from AI to consumer gadgets, providing readers with a glimpse into the future of technology.
