How to turn disappearing messages on or off in a group

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You can send messages that disappear on WhatsApp by turning disappearing messages on.
  • When you enable disappearing messages, you can choose to have messages disappear after 24 hours, 7 days, or 90 days, unless the messages are kept.
  • Disappearing messages can be kept in the chat so that they won’t disappear. Learn more about kept messages in this article.
  • You can turn on disappearing messages for multiple existing chats, and new messages sent in the chat will disappear after the duration you select. The most recent duration you select controls new messages in the chat, not previous messages you’ve sent or received.
  • You can choose to turn disappearing messages on for all of your chats, or select specific chats.

Turn on disappearing messages

In a group chat, any group member can enable disappearing messages. However, a group admin can change group settings to allow only admins to enable disappearing messages. Learn how to change group admin settings in this article.
  1. Click the group chat.
  2. Click the group name to see Group info.
  3. Click Disappearing Messages.
    • If prompted, click Continue.
  4. Select 24 hours, 7 days, or 90 days.
You can also turn on disappearing messages when creating a new group chat.

Turn off disappearing messages

Anyone in a group chat can disable disappearing messages at any time, unless a group admin has limited that action to admins only. You can choose to keep specific messages to prevent them from disappearing, as long as the duration time hasn't passed. If you decide to disable disappearing messages, you won’t have the option to keep them.
  1. Click the group chat.
  2. Click the group name to see Group info.
  3. Click Disappearing Messages.
    • If prompted, click Continue.
  4. Select Off.

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