WhatsApp may, at long last, add a feature most of its rivals have been offering for ages. The Facebook-owned messaging service is reportedly trialing a new option that will let you send self-destructing messages in private conversations.
Spotted by WABetaInfo, which reverse-engineers WhatsApp clients to unearth unannounced functions, the messaging app’s latest Android beta comes with a hidden “Delete messages” setting. It allows you to set a blanket expiration timer for all of your messages in a one-on-one personal chat. Once activated, each of your sent messages in that conversation will vanish some time after the recipient has read it. You can have them gone as quickly as an hour or up to a year.
Since the new option applies to every message of a chat, it’s unclear how WhatsApp plans to promote it. Most of its competitors such as Telegram offer the ability to fire up separate “secret” ephemeral chats that don’t affect your existing conversations with a contact. WhatsApp’s implementation, at least in its current early-stage form, also lacks a way to share messages that delete immediately after the other person has read or viewed it — similar to what its sister platforms such as Instagram already offer.
In addition to private chats, WhatsApp is expected to bring this toggle for groups, too. However, we don’t know when it will roll out to the masses. Since it’s not even yet turned on for public beta users, it’s likely that the new update will take a minimum month or two before becoming broadly available. WABetaInfo didn’t comment on whether WhatsApp is testing it for its iOS clients as well.
To be first in line to try it out, you can sign up for the Android beta channel by heading over to this link. The iOS TestFlight channel for WhatsApp generally tends to be full. Although you can keep an eye on this page to know when new slots open up.
Other than self-destructing messages for private conversations, WhatsApp is also testing password-protected chat backups. Plus, the messaging platform recently publicly rolled out a dark theme for its Android and iOS apps.
You just opened X and started typing your thoughts. Imagine the jump scare when a hand suddenly pops up on your screen, pointing at the promote button. It doesn’t say a word and simply points. For a growing number of X users, this isn’t a made-up scenario but something they have been seeing since yesterday, and very few of them are amused.
Most of us have learned to tune out the usual in-app upsells, whether it’s a glowing upgrade banner or a pop-up about a premium plan. A floating hand hovering over your draft is much harder to ignore, and that’s probably the whole point.
Scroll through any app for five minutes, and you’ll find someone maxxing something. Their skin, their sleep, their protein intake, even their Friday night on the couch. That little suffix has been everywhere this year, and now it has a trophy to show for it. In a recent announcement, Dictionary.com named maxxing its 2026 Word of the Year.
What are people actually doing when they’re maxxing?
Instagram is testing a new format for long-form videos called Features. It allows select creators to upload horizontal videos running up to 90 minutes long. Instagram has already tested the new format with creators in Brazil, and now, it's expanding to tens of thousands of creators across the US.
How will Instagram's new Features format work?