New Delhi: WhatsApp, the popular instant messaging app owned by Meta, has reintroduced the View Once feature for photos and videos on its desktop app. This feature allows users to send media files that disappear after the recipient opens them once. This feature was removed a year ago due to privacy concerns.
How to use the View Once feature on the desktop app?
According to WABetaInfo, a website that tracks the features of WhatsApp, the company has decided to bring back this feature in the last few weeks. The report says that users can access this feature on WhatsApp for Windows, macOS, and linked devices.
To use this feature, users need to click on the button that sets the image as a View Once message within the caption bar in the drawing editor on WhatsApp for Windows. The button has an icon of a clock with the number 1 on it. Users can also use this feature for videos by selecting the same button.
Why is this feature useful?
The View Once feature is useful for users who want to share sensitive or private media files that they do not want to be stored on the recipient’s device or cloud. The feature also prevents the recipient from forwarding, saving, starring, or sharing the media file. However, the feature does not prevent the recipient from taking a screenshot or recording the screen while viewing the media file.
The feature is also available on WhatsApp Web, which means users can use it on different platforms. The feature is similar to the disappearing messages feature, which allows users to send text messages that vanish after a certain period of time.
