One-time viewing photos and videos available to everyone

WhatsApp has made the new feature where sent photos and videos can be viewed once for the recipient, available to everyone. That is how it works.

View sent photos and videos once

Since last year it has been possible in WhatsApp to give messages an expiration date. You can then automatically delete messages in a chat after seven days. Parent company Facebook has also been working on a similar feature for viewing photos and videos in conversations once, and that feature has been tested in the beta version of the app since June. WhatsApp says that the function can now also be found in the stable version, so everyone can use it.

Extra privacy

So you can send photos and videos that disappear from your WhatsApp chat after the recipient opens them once. That feature is there to create more privacy, and Facebook has this to say: “While taking pictures or videos on our phones has become a big part of our lives, not everything we share digitally needs to be permanently recorded.” In addition, the files take up some of the phone’s precious storage memory.

That is why WhatsApp is now making the new feature available to everyone. So if you want to send something confidential such as a WiFi password to someone, it is better to opt for a one-time display in this case. These are the properties of the function:

• Media is not saved in the photos or Gallery from the recipient.
• Once you’ve submitted a photo or video for one-time viewing, you can’t view it again.
• You cannot forward, save, star, or share photos or videos for one-time viewing that you have sent or received.
• You can only tell if a recipient has opened a photo or video for one-time viewing if they have read receipts turned on.
• If you don’t open the photo or video within 14 days of sending it, the media in the chat will expire.
• Every time you want to send a photo or video for one-time viewing, you must select this option.
• One-time viewing media can be restored from a backup if the message was not opened at the time of the backup. If the photo or video is already open, the media is not included in the backup and cannot be restored.

Is that true?

This is a false sense of security, because the recipient can still take a screenshot or screen recording of the photo or video that is set for one-time display. It is also possible to use another device to take a photo or video. Extra privacy does not apply in this case and WhatsApp also warns about this.

Hopefully WhatsApp will block screenshots in this situation in a future update, no matter what banking apps do. Another option is to inform the sender if the recipient takes a screenshot.

This is how you send photos for one-time viewing

1. Open WhatsApp
2. Open a chat and tap the paperclip and then Camera or Gallery to add a photo or video to the conversation
3. Tap the box at the bottom of the box Add caption on the icon with the ‘1’ in the middle
4. Your photo or video is now set up for one-time viewing and the recipient can only view the photo or video once

Do you already see the new function in WhatsApp? Are you going to use it? Let us know in the comments below this article.

Helpful WhatsApp Tips

Want to learn more about WhatsApp? You can read here how you can easily remove multiple photos and videos from chats. Do you want to know how to join a video call in WhatsApp after it has already started? Then follow the simple steps in this article.

You can find our complete WhatsApp tips overview with all tips, tricks, explanations, and howtos about WhatsApp here on Androidworld. We regularly update this page with new tips so it is useful to add the page to your favorites. This way you always have the latest tips at your fingertips.