Disappearing Messages: Mutual Control | Generated by AI
Question: Both parties can set disappearing messages, right? (i.e., it’s mutual control)
Answer:
Yes — in a 1:1 chat, either party can turn it on or off, and either party can change the timer. It’s not owned by whoever started it.
Key points:
- Symmetric control. Both sides have equal power over the setting. If you set 7 days and the other person switches it to off (or to 24 hours), that change applies to the whole conversation going forward.
- Last-write-wins. The setting is a shared per-chat state synced via the message protocol. The most recent change by either party is the active one. There’s no “my preference vs. yours” — it’s one shared value.
- Both get notified. When either side changes it, an in-chat system message appears (“X changed the disappearing message timer…”), so it can’t be done silently.
- Not retroactive. Changing the timer only affects messages sent after the change. Messages already sent keep their original timer.
- No override / lock. Neither party can force the other to keep it on. There’s no admin role in a 1:1 chat, so you can’t prevent the other person from disabling it.
So practically: if you want messages to disappear, the other person can unilaterally undo that. It only “works” as long as both sides cooperate — which ties back to the threat-model point from before: it’s a mutual convention, not something one party can enforce on the other.
In groups, it differs — by default any member can change it, but admins can restrict the setting to admins-only via group permissions.
References: