WhatsApp has a new feature up its sleeve, which will answer an important question — “what if we want to keep the disappearing messages?” The Meta-owned messaging platform has announced the Keep in Chat feature to simply keep the disappearing messages in chats. Here’s how.
WhatsApp Introduces ‘Keep in Chat’
The new functionality is for situations when there’s a need to keep important information shared in a group or one-on-one chat but is of an ephemeral nature. If you want to keep a message for later, you can simply long-press it and select the bookmark option to keep it in the chat.
To recall, the feature became a part of several beta tests and was recently got available for beta users before being official.
In group chats, anyone can do so but group admins will have a say based on the settings they have chosen. But, won’t this feature defeat the whole purpose of disappearing messages? How will this benefit senders when you intended this in the first place?
The answer lies in a ‘special superpower.‘ While anyone has the right to keep messages, it’s ultimately the sender’s decision on whether or not they want to allow this. Once someone requests to keep a message, the sender will be notified and allowed to decide. If the answer is no, there won’t be any way to turn this around. With this, senders will “have the final say on how messages you send are protected.“
And if the messages are kept, you will be able to find them under the Kept Messages section under the Chat Info of each chat organized in a proper way. You will also be able to ‘Unkeep’ the messages by again long-pressing it and selecting the Unkeep option.
The new WhatsApp feature will gradually roll out to users in the coming weeks. Do let us know your thoughts on it in the comments below.
