WhatsApp now allows you to block screenshots of certain messages. A function that will increase your privacy.
WhatsApp temporary messages are used to send a text, photo or video with private content that you do not want to leave a specific conversation. It may contain a private image or sensitive information. Precisely, to prevent that content from leaving there, the message is temporary. In other words, after a while it disappears from the device that received the image or video. However, if it is a photo, whoever receives it can take a screenshot . Or that was the case until now, when WhatsApp could not block screenshots.
But with the August updates for WhatsApp, both on Android and iPhone, Facebook has decided to incorporate new features to better protect the privacy of our messages or what we do or don’t do in this instant messaging app. And one of those novelties is, precisely, what happens with temporary messages .
Sending temporary WhatsApp messages is fine because they disappear instantly. But, of course, if the recipient can take a screenshot or record the video with the recording function of their phone, there is no point in keeping the message temporary. Hence the ability to block screenshots.
Block screenshots
The good news is that you don’t have to do anything to get this new feature. Just keep your WhatsApp version up to date. This is a default feature that does not need to be manually configured. And, therefore, it cannot be deactivated either. As explained by the specialized medium WABetaInfo , blocking screenshots works on temporary WhatsApp messages that contain photos and videos . When this is the case, when trying to capture or start a recording, a message will appear indicating that the capture has been blocked for privacy reasons.
However, for the moment this blocking does not affect temporary WhatsApp messages that contain text . Or normal conversations. You also will not receive a notice if someone has tried to capture your messages . Something that should happen in future versions of WhatsApp to find out if the person who receives our temporary messages is trustworthy or not.
Finally, a recommendation for your safety. It should be remembered that, although WhatsApp temporary messages expire, they are not 100% secure. Not adding this function to block screenshots. As explained in WABetaInfo , if someone has a second device with a camera at hand, they could easily take a screenshot or record the received video. And you wouldn’t know until you saw that content published. In summary, you should be very careful when sending temporary messages because a text, image or video can fall into the wrong hands due to carelessness.
Activate temporary WhatsApp messages
WhatsApp temporary messages can be set to disappear after 24 hours, 7 days or 90 days. They can be activated, separately, in various chats or conversations. But it is worth knowing that “new messages sent in the chat will disappear after the selected duration. The most recent selection will affect new chat messages, however, messages sent or received before the activation of temporary messages will not suffer any change.
To activate temporary messages in an individual chat, you have to open WhatsApp, enter that conversation, tap on the contact’s name, and then tap on Temporary messages . Finally, you will have to choose the expiration period (24 hours, 7 days or 90 days). You will also need to choose in which chats to enable the message expiration feature .
And to deactivate this function, you will have to repeat the same process. But after clicking on Temporary messages you will see the option Disabled . Click there and then select in which chats to deactivate the function.
