WhatsApp is reportedly expanding testing for its new View-Once disappearing messages feature to iOS after initially introducing it in beta testing on Android last month.

According to WABetaInfo, the feature was discovered in beta version 26.19.10.72 of WhatsApp for iOS. The system introduces a more advanced approach to disappearing messages by allowing chats to automatically delete shortly after they are opened and read.

The feature can reportedly be activated through the “After reading” option found inside the Default Message Timer settings. Users will be able to choose countdown durations of 5 minutes, 1 hour, or 2 hours. Once the recipient reads the message, the selected timer begins counting down before the message disappears automatically.

If a message is never opened, WhatsApp will reportedly remove it automatically after 24 hours. The feature is also designed to synchronize deletion behavior across both sender and recipient devices.

For example, if a sender shares a message at 10:00 AM with the timer set to 5 minutes, the message would disappear from the sender’s device at 10:05 AM regardless of whether it has been read. If the recipient opens the message at 10:10 AM, it would then disappear from their device at 10:15 AM. Unread messages would instead be automatically deleted the following day.

The feature appears aimed at making conversations more temporary and privacy-focused, going beyond WhatsApp’s existing disappearing messages system by tying deletion directly to read status rather than only elapsed time after sending.

At the moment, the functionality is only available to a limited number of beta testers on iOS, and Meta has not yet revealed when it plans to roll out the feature publicly.