WhatsApp for Android to get expiring messages, support for multiple devices soon

In the past, several reports have hinted towards WhatsApp working on a feature that would allow users to send messages in individual chats and groups that disappear within a specified period of time. Now, a new report hints that the feature is inching closer to a roll out.

According to a report by WABetaInfo, Facebook-owned WhatsApp has renamed the feature once again. It is now called Expiring Messages. Earlier, the feature was spotted as Disappearing Messages and Delete Messages. Besides remaining t feature, the company has also made some changes to the feature. For starters, in groups the feature will be available only to the group administrators. This means that only the group admins will be able to determine if other group members will be able to share disappearing messages in the group. The group admin will also set the time duration within which the messages will disappear. The available options are one day, one week and one month.

Apart from this, WhatsApp is adding a special icon when the Expiring Messages is enabled in a specific chat, WhatsApp will show a timer icon on the profile picture in the chats list. A similar icon is shared on the right side of the profile picture within the individual chat window as well.

In addition to that, WhatsApp is also actively working on developing the feature that would allow users to use a single WhatsApp account on multiple device. The blog site says that when a user adds their WhatsApp account on another device, the encryption key will changes, which in turn will be notified within the chat. "Your security code with xxx T changed, because they logged in or out from multiple devices," the message in the chat shows.

These changes are available in WhatsApp Beta for Android version in 2.20.110. However, the company hasn't rolled out these changes to the main app yet.