In the future, concentration will be the order of the day when Whatsapp messages come in – you might only be able to read them once. A corresponding function has appeared in test versions of the messenger.

Germany’s most popular messenger Whatsapp is currently taking off in rapid succession: in the past few months, the app has received numerous new functions, many of which are related to more security for users. As “WABetaInfo” reports, self-deleting messages are apparently next on the agenda.

If you miss the Whatsapp message, you have to ask for it to be repeated

The news that you can only read once is still in development. Accordingly, there are currently only indications of this in a specific test version for the Android app. According to initial findings, there should be an alternative “Send” button with a lock for sending a self-deleting message.

If you send a text message about it, it is only displayed once when you open the chat – and then disappears. If you still want to read what was there again, the following message appears: “This text has expired. Ask the sender to send it again.”

Handy for sensitive data

Conceivable scenarios for such messages could be account numbers, passwords or other sensitive data that should not be saved forever in the other person’s chat history. In principle, this form of text message would save a step, because it is already possible to delete messages for everyone involved – if you think about it.

Such a function has been available for pictures and videos for a long time. Whatsapp recently expanded the self-deleting content to include a screenshot lock so that recipients can no longer create secret copies.

Other messengers, such as Signal, already support such a message option. It is currently still unclear when WhatsApp will release the new messages for all users.