Recent reports suggest that Facebook-owned WhatsApp will roll out a new feature “view once” for its users, making it easier to send disappearing photos and videos in chats. The feature is basically on beta testing mode only on the Android platform currently. The messaging company has given this feature a name – “View Once,” and this was the most demanded feature that was requested by the users.
Currently, only beta testers have access to this new feature so that the company can fix all the bugs before launching it worldwide and sources also hint to us that WhatsApp will roll this feature to all users in the coming weeks.
What is the “View Once” Mode in WhatsApp?
View Once is nothing but a new feature that the company will introduce for all its users that lets users privately exchange media involving videos and images and will immediately disappear after the recipient has viewed it.
Until now, the feature tells that the sender can see if the recipient has opened the image or video even if the sender has disabled read receipts. It would be wrong to say that this feature is completely private as one might assume because the receiver can take screenshots of the disappearing media once he/she opens them. Moreover, the messaging company won’t even notify you if someone has taken a screenshot of the disappearing media.
When the company was asked what they will do about notifying the option if someone takes a screenshot of the media, after admitting this limitation the company gave a statement that hints to everybody that it is not interested in creating a screenshot detection mechanism in the future. So, if you are a more secure person who doesn’t want to compromise his/her privacy, then it’s better to switch over to some other messaging platform like Snapchat.
This feature is quite similar to Instagram’s disappearing media feature. The sender cannot view the sent image or video by opening it. The sender can delete the message for everyone before the recipient opens it.
How to Use WhatsApp “View Once” Mode?
As you are familiar with the usage of this new feature, now its time to learn how to use it in personal chats and groups:
- Open a WhatsApp chat and now select an image or video from the media just like you do usually when sending someone a media in the application.
- Once you have reached that step where you get an opportunity to write a caption before pressing the send button, you will see an icon on the right side of the chatbox that means “View Once.” The icon will turn green once you have activated it.
- As mentioned above, the sender cannot view the sent media consisting of either an image or a video. Instead, the sender will get to see a text which says “Photo” and a clock icon adjacent to it.
- Once, the recipient opens the media message, the text “Photo” will automatically change to “Opened” to show the current status. This step will take place even if both the devices have turned off the blue tick feature and you can long-press the “Opened” chat bubble and tap on the “i” button to view the detailed message info of the shared media content consisting of photo/video.
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