Facebook hinted at a host of new features for its chat app Messenger last month. One of these was a ¡®vanish mode¡¯ that was supposed to be launched soon.?
A month on, the feature has now been rolled out and it seems to work much like the disappearing messages brought to WhatsApp recently.
New media reports in the US cite a press release by the social media giant announcing the release. The vanish mode will be available to both Messenger and Instagram users. As of now, the feature has been rolled out to select users in the US and a few more countries and global rollout is expected soon.
The release explains that all messages sent while the users are in vanish mode will disappear as soon as the recipient reads them and closes the conversation. In order to enable the vanish mode, both the sender and the receiver will have to approve it in the chat.
This is the first time that Instagram will get such a feature for its chat. Messenger had a similar feature earlier in the form of ¡®secret conversation¡¯ that let users send disappearing messages with custom vanish-time.
To ensure privacy, Facebook has put in a few checks. This includes a notification if a screenshot is taken of a user¡¯s chat in vanish mode.
In order to use the vanish mode, users just need to swipe up in an existing chat thread. Swiping up again will bring the regular chat back. Facebook also shows an explainer of the new feature upon the user¡¯s first swipe up.
The company says that the feature is meant to let its user base share in-the-moment memes, GIFs, stickers, or even reactions. Anything that the users would like to share at the moment but would not want it to stick around in their chat history.