Oliver Haslam·

WhatsApp Testing Removal Of Automatic Media Saves In Chats With Disappearing Messages Enabled

WhatsApp is changing the way it handles media like photos, GIFs, and videos when they are received by someone via a chat that has disappearing messages enabled.

The change, which was first reported by WABetaInfo, will mean that received media will no longer be saved to iPhones or Android devices when disappearing messages are enabled.

While the media can still be saved manually, the default will be that nothing will be saved — a change that makes sense in a chat thread that also has disappearing messages enabled.

As you can see in this screenshot, WhatsApp is now automatically turning off the option “media visibility” for disappearing chats on WhatsApp for Android, which let people view media in their phone’s gallery. This is to ensure a better privacy experience when using disappearing messages and to help keep media more private in disappearing chat threads. In addition, WhatsApp is rolling out the same change on WhatsApp for iOS, where the option “Save to Camera Roll” is automatically turned off for disappearing chats.

Those who are privacy-conscious will surely prefer this new default behavior, something that some might have already expected to be the case. The change is rolling out to both iOS and Android users right now, the report says, with everyone expected to receive it within the coming hours and days.

WhatsApp is often used by people who want to keep their conversations private. Having devices save media doesn’t make sense in that context, one reason this new default behavior is so important.

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