Must-have WhatsApp upgrade offers you a new way to chat on iPhone and Android

If you send endless voice messages to friends and family rather than bashing away on the keyboard there’s now a new way to keep in touch. WhatsApp has just announced the release of an upgrade which will let its billions of fans send self-destructing-style voice messages’. That basically means they can only be played once before being deleted for good.

“We introduced View Once for photos and videos back in 2021 to add another layer of privacy to your messages. Today, we’re excited to announce you can now send a voice message that will disappear once listened to,” WhatsApp said in a post on its blog.

To send a once-only voice message you’ll need to select the view once option – full details on how that works can be found here.

Once you send a ‘View Once’ photo, video, or voice message, you won’t be able to view it again. The recipient also can’t take a screenshot of anything you send using ‘view once’.

WhatsApp says that View Once voice messages are rolling out globally over the coming days so you should find they are available on your iPhone or Android device soon.

View Once isn’t the only new feature that’s recently arrived on the WhatsApp application.

A new “secret code” option now lets you hide chats behind a pin which means they can’t be accessed unless you know the numbers.

With a secret code you’ll now be able to set a unique password different from what you use to unlock your phone to give your locked chats an extra layer of privacy. You’ll have the option to hide the Locked Chats folder from your chatlist so that they can only be discovered by typing your secret code in the search bar.

“Earlier this year we rolled out Chat Lock to help people protect their more sensitive conversations. Today we’re launching secret code, an additional way to protect those chats and make them harder to find if someone has access to your phone or you share a phone with someone else.”

If you have things you don’t want others to see it’s worth setting up this feature especially as it keeps things hidden on your main device along with secondary products such as tablets and laptops.