Group chats have become our safe space, allowing us to exchange confidential information with colleagues and have genuine conversations with the people we trust, especially now when face-to-face interactions are limited. Amid increasing cases of identity theft and other online threats, we can never be too careful. It won’t hurt to add another layer of protection to our safe spaces.
This is why Viber, a leading app for free and easy communication, has expanded its Disappearing Messages feature to include group chats within the app, giving users more control over their data and privacy.
A feature that was previously available only for one-on-one chats, Viber’s Disappearing Messages in group chats is unlike others. While other messaging apps offer the same option for all messages in a group chat, Viber allows each group chat member to decide whether they want a message to disappear right before sending it or not—the setting is not automatically applied to all messages.
With the expanded functionality, Viber users can set messages in a group chat to disappear 10 seconds, one minute, one hour, or one day after being read, offering more options than with the disappearing message features of other apps. On devices using Android 6 or newer, Viber will completely disable forwarding, copying, or taking a screenshot of a message when the disappearing option is activated. For earlier versions of Android and all iOS users, group chat members will be automatically notified if any member takes a screenshot of a message set to disappear. The feature can be applied to any type of message, including photos and stickers.
For example, if a group of people have been invited to a house party, the code to get in the gate can be sent in a group chat as a message set to disappear one minute after users have read the message.
Personal and group chats on Viber are end-to-end encrypted, so users can be sure that their communications are always private and secure. The Disappearing Messages feature is another example of Viber’s commitment to offering a secure messaging app where users can be confident in the privacy of their conversations at every touchpoint.
“We’re excited to give Viber users the ultimate control when they’re sending private messages either to an individual or a group,” says Nadav Melnick, Vice President of Product for Rakuten Viber. “Privacy has long been a paramount concern for us, as evidenced by our unwavering adherence to end-to-end encryption. With this update, our commitment to privacy becomes even more personal for our users and the people they talk to most.”
Keep group convos more private than ever with Disappearing Messages, update your Viber app today.
