WhatsApp is testing disappearing messages that wait for you to actually read them before vanishing

Home PhonesNews WhatsApp's new After Reading timer deletes messages only after the recipient reads them. Anton / Pexels WhatsApp has always let you send messages that vanish on a timer, but the clock starts the moment you hit send, not when the other person actually read it. That means a message could sit unread for hours and still disappear before anyone sees it. This is why WhatsApp is testing a new feature called ‘After Reading’ timer for disappearing messages, spotted in the latest iOS beta update by WABetaInfo. The feature is currently rolling out to some beta testers on iOS, having previously been tested on Android. It is available through the TestFlight beta program, with a wider rollout expected over the coming weeks. How does the After Reading timer actually work? WhatsApp To understand the new feature, it helps to know how disappearing messages already work on WhatsApp. When you turn on disappearing messages in a chat, WhatsApp automatically deletes new messages after a set period. You can currently choose between 24 hours, 7 days, or 90 days. The feature can be switched on for specific chats or applied globally across all your conversations. The new After Reading option adds a smarter layer on top of this. Instead of the countdown starting when you send the message, it kicks in the moment the recipient actually reads it. WABetaInfo You can set the message to disappear 5 minutes, 1 hour, or 12 hours after it is opened. If the recipient never opens the message, it disappears automatically after 24 hours. After Reading feature works slightly differently for the sender and recipient On the sender’s side, the message disappears 5 minutes after sending, regardless of when the recipient opens it. On the recipient’s side, the countdown only begins once they view it. The After Reading option is entirely optional and not enabled by default, so your existing conversations remain as they are unless you choose to turn it on. It can also be enabled on a per-chat basis, giving you the flexibility to use it only where it makes sense. Recently, WhatsApp also introduced an Incognito Chat mode for Meta AI, where messages vanish the moment you close the chat. Manisha Priyadarshini is a tech and entertainment writer with over nine years of editorial experience. Phones Samsung PenUp adds new stylus tricks to your Galaxy phone, if it support an S Pen Galaxy S Pen users now have more brushes to mess around with Samsung’s PenUp app is getting a useful creative upgrade for Galaxy users, especially those who use the S Pen for casual digital art. For those unaware, PenUp is Samsung’s app for sketching and coloring templates. It works with touch input, but the latest update should be most useful on Galaxy phones and tablets with S Pen support. The latest PenUp update, version 3.9.22.23, adds 53 new brushes through the “Download more brushes” option. It also adds Dual brush, a new tool that lets two strokes work together for layered effects. Read more Phones Apple should just give the Neo treatment to its upcoming iPhone 18e and I’ll bite There, I said it, I want the iPhone Neo For years, Apple has approached its affordable iPhones with a predictable formula: take an older flagship design, remove a few premium features, lower the price slightly, and position it as the “entry point” into the ecosystem. Financially, the strategy works. Emotionally, it often does not. That is exactly why the upcoming iPhone 18e represents such a major opportunity for Apple. Instead of treating it as another watered-down flagship, Apple should fully embrace a “Neo” identity, one built around color, personality, experimentation, and smart hardware reuse. Apple has already executed it perfectly with the MacBook Neo. It just needs to follow that template for an affordable iPhone. Read more Phones Your Android phone can now share files with any iPhone using a Quick Share QR code Quick Share just got a trick that makes cross-platform file sharing almost painless. Sharing files between Android and iPhone has always been a pain, but Google is quietly fixing that. The company launched a new Quick Share feature that made Android devices compatible with Apple’s AirDrop, allowing users to easily transfer files between iPhones and Android devices. However, not all Android devices have the hardware to support Quick Share-AirDrop compatibility, which means not all Android smartphones can access this feature. To solve this problem, Google announced a new QR code-based file-sharing system, which allows any Android device to transfer files to iPhones. Read more