WhatsApp beta users on Android have started receiving the much-awaited disappearing messages feature.

WhatsApp’s disappearing messages

WhatsApp last week announced the launch of disappearing messages. The new feature will be available to all users on Android and iOS within this month. WhatsApp has now started rolling out disappearing messages to beta testers on Android.

WhatsApp beta users on Android can start using the new feature. It’s slowly rolling out and available with WhatsApp beta version 2.20.206.9. Since it’s a slow rollout, it may take time to reach all beta users, WABetaInfo noted. WhatsApp beta users can check if the feature is available. Open contact info and see if there’s a new row for disappearing messages. For group chats, admins can check the same through group info.

If the feature is available then you can turn it on, and disappearing messages will be activated. Once enabled, messages sent to that particular chat will disappear after seven days. This affects only those messages sent after the feature is enabled, and not before that.

WhatsApp’s disappearing messages feature does come with a few limitations though. The content of the messages will still be visible in the notifications preview even if it disappears after seven days. Messages which are quoted and replied to will also remain in the chat even if the original text disappears.

This feature doesn’t work on forwarded messages either. If you’ve forwarded a disappearing message it will still appear in the forwarded chat even after it disappears from the original chat. You can also backup disappearing messages but it won’t appear later once the chats are restored.

WhatsApp is expected to roll out disappearing messages to its iOS beta app as well. It should soon reach the stable version so all users can start using it.