The encrypted chat app Signal is adding a few new options for users looking to lock down their messages. The app will now allow anyone to turn on a default timer for disappearing messages, automatically applying the settings to any newly initiated conversations.<\/p>\n
Signal\u2019s disappearing messages option deletes chats for both the sender and receiver after a set amount of time passes. Previously, you had to toggle the option on and select an interval for each individual conversation, which made it easy to overlook the extra privacy feature if you had a lot of chats going at once.<\/p>\n
\nShout out to everyone who’s been asking for this for a while.<\/p>\n
Now you can set a default disappearing message timer in Signal. All new groups you create or new conversations you initiate will be preconfigured with it. https:\/\/t.co\/QGWv6DTx6V<\/a><\/p>\n
\u2014 Moxie Marlinspike (@moxie) August 10, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
Signal is also adding more options for how long disappearing messages stick around before evaporating. The app\u2019s users can now select an interval up to four weeks and as short as 30 seconds. You can even lower that to a single second in the app\u2019s custom time options.<\/p>\n
On any chat app, it\u2019s important to remember that disappearing messages vanish from the user interface, but that doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re gone for good. Anything you share online can live on indefinitely via screenshots or through someone taking a photo of an app\u2019s screen with another device.<\/p>\n
Signal wants its users to keep this in mind, noting that the disappearing message options are best for saving storage space and keeping conversation history to a minimum, just in case. \u201cThis is not for situations where your contact is your adversary,\u201d the company wrote in a blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The app remains one of the most popular end-to-end encrypted messaging options to date, and earlier this year even managed to absorb some WhatsApp users who grew skittish over data-sharing policy changes at Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The privacy-minded messaging app is very well regarded for its strong feature set and the company\u2019s independence, though Signal remains relatively small compared to Facebook\u2019s own end-to-end encrypted WhatsApp, which the company acquired in 2014. As of December 2020, Signal boasted around 20 million monthly active users, while WhatsApp hit 2 billion users early last year.<\/p>\n
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