From this week, users of WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, can now send photos and videos which as soon as they are viewed will disappear from the platform. Indeed, in its latest blogpost, WhatsApp announces the arrival of a new feature, View Once: a single view for photos and videos, which disappear when the interlocutor opens the received media.
A feature tells us WhatsApp created to better compete with the Snapchat photo messaging app. ” The feature, called View Once, will allow photos and videos to disappear from the chat after being viewed. Facebook said in a blog post on Tuesday, adding that once the multimedia content has been viewed, the message would be displayed as “open”. Snapchat, known for its Stories feature that allows users to post updates that disappear after 24 hours, gained popularity last year as pandemic-induced restrictions kept users at home. This novelty, View Once allows users of the platform to send ephemeral photos or videos, which are erased completely independently. A useful feature for sending “one-time” files such as sharing a WiFi code or a photo taken on the fly.
Concretely, a photo or a video sent with the View Once option will be indicated by a “single view” icon. Then, when the file is consulted, it will display the mention “open”. On the security side, the social network indicates that these single-view files are end-to-end encrypted and that the media will not be saved in the recipient’s camera roll. In addition, the photo or video sent will be automatically deleted after 14 days if your contact has not opened the media. Conversely, you do not receive notifications if your interlocutor takes a screenshot when opening the file.
In other words, the WhatsApp blogpost tells us, the media will not be saved in the recipient’s photos or gallery. Once you send a once photo or video view, you will not be able to see it again. You cannot upload, save, feature, or share photos or videos that have been sent or received with view after media is enabled. You can only see if a recipient has opened a view once for the photo or video if they have enabled read receipts. If you don’t open the photo or video within 14 days of sending it, the media will expire from the chat. You have to select show media once every time you want to send a once view a photo or video.
View Once media can be restored from backup if the message is not open at the time of the backup. If the photo or video has already been opened, the media will not be included in the backup and cannot be restored. However, it is possible for someone to take a screenshot or screenshot of the media before it disappears and one will not be notified if someone just takes that screenshot or the screen recording still tells us WhatsApp.
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