This tutorial explains how to automatically delete chats on WhatsApp using Default Message Timer. This is a new feature that is being introduced in WhatsApp Beta privacy settings. The 1-1 chats on WhatsApp can now self destruct after specified number of days. You can configure automatic chat deletion for a specific chat or for all chats as a default behavior.
To extend disappearing messages, WhatsApp now provides you an option to delete chats as well. You can now put the chats deletion on autopilot and don’t let WhatsApp take so much space on phone. This will prevent unnecessary chats from piling up in your account and you can also turn it off anytime if you no longer need it.
If you are in marketing like line of work where you have to message a lot of people then this option will be helpful. Often times, it becomes too exhausting to delete all chats one by one. To address this, WhatsApp Beta now has option to set a default message timer (in number of days). When the chats become older than the specified number of days in, WhatsApp app will delete those chats.
How to Automatically Delete Chats on WhatsApp using Default Message Timer?
Configuring message timer is very easy. However, you must be a WhatsApp beta tester to try this feature out. If you are not then you just have to wait a little longer till Meta decides to push it in the stable release.
If you have this feature is enabled then you can find it in the Privacy Settings of WhatsApp. There is separate menu option for “Default message timer” as you can see in the screenshot below.
Tap on this and you will see the available options to delete chats automatically. Right now it has 24 hours, 7 days, and 90 days as the options to specify after how much time WhatsApp should delete a chat. If you configure this, then all the future 1-1 chats will be deleted based on the specified criteria. Existing chats before enabling this option will not be affected.
The same thing can be configured for individual chats. Tap on profile picture of the participant and then from the chat settings, find the “Disappearing messages” option. Configure it in the same way as I have shown for default chat settings above. This is as simple as that.
In this way, you can now take disappearing messages of WhatsApp to a whole new level. You can now opt to automatically delete chats after X days. If you have these options on your WhatsApp then configure them now and save yourself from the pain of having a haystack of unnecessary chats in your account.
Closing thoughts:
This new message timer feature of WhatsApp is very useful from privacy point of view. If you want to automatically delete private chats that you do on WhatsApp then you can configure it. For now, it only shows 3 options for automatically chat deletion but I hope they refine it in the coming updates.
