A photo, video or voice message can be sent so that it opens once. The recipient taps it, sees it, closes it, and there is nothing left in the chat but a note that something was there.
It removes the copy that would otherwise sit in a conversation for years. It does not stop anybody who has decided to keep it.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Send media that can only be opened once.
- check_circle Judge what it actually protects against.
- check_circle Choose between this and an auto-delete timer.
- check_circle Handle one you have been sent.
The option is set on the attachment before sending, not after.
lock_clock What it removes, and what it does not
The real risk with a sensitive photo is not usually that somebody screenshots it. It is that it stays in a chat, gets backed up, shows up in a shared album, and is still there when the phone is handed to somebody else two years later. View-once deals with exactly that, and it deals with it well.
What it cannot deal with is intent. A second phone pointed at the screen produces a perfect copy and nothing in any app can prevent it. The client may block or flag a screenshot depending on the platform, and that is a speed bump, not a wall.
So the honest way to use it: send things you are content for that person to see, where you would rather no permanent copy existed. If you would be harmed by them keeping it, the feature is not the answer — the decision about whether to send it is.
Four things to be clear about
The third compares it with the option most people confuse it with.
task_alt Things that should not linger
gpp_maybe Not a security control
timer Once, or for a while
drafts Open it when you can act on it
View-once removes the copy that lingers, not the copy somebody decides to make.
settings Sending one
- Attach the photo, video or voice message As you normally would.
- Set it to open once On the attachment, before sending.
- Send it when the other person can look Not at three in the morning.
- Say what it is in a normal message They cannot reopen it to check.
- Use an auto-delete timer for the conversation If the whole chat should clear.
- Do not send anything that grants access Whatever the mode.
This page is one item that vanishes on opening. The curriculum step is the whole idea: timers across a conversation, what is actually deleted where, and where a disappearing message quietly survives.
At a glance
- 1View once
Media that can be opened a single time.
- 2Not foolproof
A second phone can still photograph it.
- 3Receiving one
Open it when you can pay attention.
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