What is WhatsApp’s ‘After Reading’ feature? Will further strengthen the privacy of users

WhatsApp may soon bring a new privacy feature for its users, which will make disappearing messages smarter. Till now, users could set disappearing messages with a fixed timer like 24 hours, 7 days or 90 days, but now the company is testing a new ‘After Reading’ option.

The most special thing about this new feature is that the timer will not start as soon as the message is sent, but the countdown will start only when the other person reads the message. That is, if you have sent any important or personal information, it will disappear only when the receiver sees it. This will give users better control over the privacy of their chats.

According to the report, this feature has been seen in WhatsApp Beta for Android 2.26.15.11 update. WABetaInfo said that the company is working on it and it can be rolled out in the coming time.

Along with this, the company is preparing to provide not only ‘After Reading’ but also more timing options. Currently, only some fixed time options are available in disappearing messages, but in the new feature small timers like 5 minutes, 1 hour and 12 hours can also be found.

For example, if you chose the 5 minutes option, the message will automatically disappear 5 minutes after the receiver reads it. If the other person opens the message after 3 hours, the countdown will start from that time. This can make sharing sensitive information more secure.

Timing may vary
However, one interesting thing in this is that timing can work differently for sender and receiver. The message can be deleted from the sender’s phone as per the specified time, while it will remain on the recipient’s device for a specified period of time after being read. This can provide better privacy control on both sides.

This feature can prove to be very useful especially for those who share OTP, personal documents, banking details or other confidential information on WhatsApp. With this, the message will not remain in the chat for a long time.

Currently this feature is in the development stage and is not available for general users. It will be released to beta testers first, and can be rolled out to all users once testing is complete. If this feature is launched, the privacy settings of WhatsApp will become much stronger than before.