View once feature coming back to WhatsApp on desktop

WhatsApp, like most social messaging apps, supports disappearing messages, a feature that automatically deletes a message after a particular period of time. WhatsApp users can also send images and videos that can only be viewed once before they're automatically deleted.

These features are available on both Android and iOS, and they were also available on the desktop and web versions of the app. Last year, however, WhatsApp removed the ability to send view once photos and videos from the desktop and web apps to make things more secure, which wasn't a popular decision.

But WhatsApp is now reversing that decision and working on bringing back the view once feature to its desktop (Windows, MacOS) and web clients. As discovered by WABetaInfo, some WhatsApp beta testers have been seeing the option to send photos and videos that can only be viewed once in the last few weeks. It's unclear if WhatsApp is also bringing back the ability to open view once photos and videos on desktop and the web, though there is a good chance that might happen eventually.

As always, WhatsApp beta users are getting to test out the new (or returning, in this case) features ahead of the general public and there's no telling when the same functionality will come to the standard WhatsApp app. But we'll let you know as soon as that happens, so stay tuned.

Abhijeet Mishra - Editor-in-Chief

[email protected]

First Samsung device: SGH-D500

Abhijeet's writing career started with guides for custom firmware for Samsung devices (including the original Galaxy S), and he moved to SamMobile in mid-2013 and worked up the ranks to Editor-in-chief. In addition to phones and mobile devices, his interests include gaming on both PC and console, PC hardware, and spending countless hours on YouTube watching videos on tech, movies, games, politics, and internet dramas.

Tech WhatsApp