WhatsApp on Wednesday rolled out the much-awaited disappearing photo and video feature. The ‘View Once’ feature will allow users to send a picture or video to other users that will disappear after it has been seen once by the recipient.

“You can now send photos and videos that disappear after they’ve been opened via View Once on WhatsApp, giving you more control over your chats privacy!” said the company over Twitter.

New feature alert!

You can now send photos and videos that disappear after they’ve been opened via View Once on WhatsApp, giving you more control over your chats privacy! pic.twitter.com/Ig5BWbX1Ow

— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) August 3, 2021

How does ‘View Once’ work?

Users of the Facebook-owned app can now send media files, photos and videos that will ‘disappear’ after being viewed once by the recipient. These files can’t be shared, forwarded, saved or starred. The media files will not be downloaded to the recipient’s phone either. The company has assured that all media is encrypted and WhatsApp cannot read it just like other messages sent through the app.

The media file will be clearly marked with a “one-time” icon, and once opened will be replaced by an “opened” label to prevent any confusion. Users can check whether the recipient has viewed the media only if they have ‘read receipts’ feature turned on.

The new feature will let users have more privacy control over what media files they are sending to other users.

The company also stated that the feature will also help combat the bloat of pictures and videos that don’t need to be saved for a long time.

“While taking photos or videos on our phones has become such a big part of our lives, not everything we share needs to become a permanent digital record. On many phones, simply taking a photo means it will take up space in your camera roll forever,” the company said on its blog.

How to turn on ‘View Once’

You can enable ‘View Once’ media when you are sending your media files. There is no default option to turn all your sent media in the ‘View Once’ mode. Users can enable the feature by tapping a clock-like icon in the ‘Add a caption’ bar when sending media files. Once enabled, WhatsApp notifies users with a message saying “Photo set to View Once.”

Even though the feature will improve the privacy of users, the company advises users to send sensitive media to trusted individuals only. This is because the recipients can still take screenshots of the ‘View Once’ media without the senders’ knowledge. Recipients can also record the media through another phone before it expires.

WhatsApp follows the footsteps of fellow Facebook-owned Instagram in introducing the disappearing media files feature.