The WhatsApp newest feature is beating Apple at its own game – privacy. Apple has always made it a point to compete with other tech rivals to protect your privacy and has gone on record to promise to users that whatever you do on your iPhone stays on your iPhone. But it looks like another messaging service might have one-upped the company when it comes to keeping your messages secure. Rival messaging company WhatsApp has unveiled its newest feature that has the potential to blow Apple’s privacy efforts out of the water. This small update packs quite a punch if you’re someone who wants to keep their messages secure from any type of breach.
The newest WhatsApp feature is an ephemeral messaging system. Ephemeral message systems allow you to automatically delete messages after a certain amount of time, similar to Snapchat where messages are deleted after a certain period. The new feature allows you to set chats in WhatsApp to delete within a specific duration of time.
Ephemeral message systems have a lot of advantages. It can stop your device from clogging up with old messages such as large-sized photos or videos that can take up a lot of storage space. But most important aspect of ephemeral message systems is that they will allow you to erase any type of content after it’s sent. In this current generation where old messages can put anyone at risk, old content shouldn’t be kept on your device.
According to WABetaInfo, “WhatsApp will release a feature that allows you to send photos and videos that can only be viewed once. You can also verify if the recipient has opened the media.” This update will allow users to view content safely as it will disappear without a trace afterward.
Once the message or photo is opened, it will be deleted from both sides forever. WhatsApp’s newest features are the key to brand new data privacy. The only question now is will Apple iMessage do the same?