Prioritize User Privacy, WhatsApp Updates Its Media Visibility Options

JAKARTA - In August last year, WhatsApp launched the ability to auto-delete media that was sent, this feature allows users to send images and videos that the recipient can only see once.

However, any photos or videos that are sent in that type of conversation are still downloaded to the phone storage and visible in the gallery, which can consume phone storage space and impact privacy.

Now, WhatsApp has finally fixed the issue by turning off the media visibility option for such chats.

According to a WABetaInfo report that was first aware of this update, the new version of WhatsApp that has already been rolled out to some users no longer saves media files sent and received automatically when the message disappears option is active.

This update seems to result from a privacy aspect that is rooted in the entire disappearing message feature, given that the main reason WhatsApp users choose to enable disappearing messages is to keep messages (and media) sent during a session private.

But keeping the media files automatically sent during the session to the phone's memory just sort of defeats the purpose of the feature. WhatsApp finally has a solution to fix it.

Launching Slashgear, Saturday, April 9, even so, WhatsApp will still give users the option to download and save images manually.

This feature is said to have rolled out for select iOS users. But Android users will have to wait a little longer. WABetaInfo states, these new changes will roll out to members of public builds and betas in the next 24 hours.