Auto-delete can be set once for every new chat you start, instead of chat by chat. From then on conversations clear themselves after the period you chose, on both sides, without anybody remembering to tidy up.
It is the difference between deciding what to keep and deciding what to delete — and the first is a decision you make once.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Set a default timer for new chats.
- check_circle Apply or remove one on an existing conversation.
- check_circle Keep the things you would otherwise lose.
- check_circle Understand what the other person sees and can do.
The default applies to chats you start from then on; existing ones keep whatever they had.
auto_delete A policy rather than a habit
Deleting things by hand depends on remembering, and nobody does. A timer does not: messages older than the period disappear for both people, quietly, forever, with no maintenance at all.
Setting it globally means every new conversation starts that way. Existing chats are unaffected, so it is a decision about the future rather than a sweep of the past — and each chat can still be given its own setting afterwards.
Both people see that a timer is on, and in a private chat either can change it. That is the right arrangement: a conversation belongs to both, and one person cannot silently impose a memory policy on the other.
Four ways to use it
The right period depends on what the chat is for.
settings Choosing a period
forum A single chat
group Groups and channels
warning The honest limits
Decide once what you keep. Then forward the exceptions out before the timer reaches them.
settings Setting it
- Open privacy and security The default auto-delete setting is there.
- Choose a period for new chats A month suits most people.
- Override it per chat where needed Shorter for sensitive, off for what you keep.
- Tell people in a group before enabling one Their history is about to become finite.
- Forward anything worth keeping to Saved Messages That copy is unaffected.
- Use delete-by-date for the past The timer only works forwards.
This page sets one default. The curriculum step is the mechanism beneath it: the timer options in full, self-destructing media, what happens on each device when a message expires, and how this relates to secret chats.
At a glance
- 1Default timer
Set auto-delete for all new chats.
- 2Existing chats
Apply or remove a timer per conversation.
- 3Save what matters
Move keepers to Saved Messages first.
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