Facebook is testing out the self-destructing messages, capable of disappearing in an hour.
It may look like Facebook just signed a silent agreement with MI5 in order to put M. out of business, but the tech giant has something else in mind. Facebook tests self-destructing messages in order to beef up its services.
It’s no big news that Facebook is caught in a fiery conflict with Snapchat. Even the numbers come to confirm this. While Snapchat amasses over 6 billion views each day, Facebook raises the stakes to nearly 8 billion views a day. And that’s not all. The two companies seem to do everything they can in order to attract more visitors.
So, basically, there you have it. This is the big picture: Facebook over Snapchat and Snapchat over Facebook. The tables are turning each minute. But it seems that Facebook has another trick up its sleeve. Due to the recent events in France, Facebook considers that is has the best opportunity to test its new service.
What are self-destructing Facebook messages and what can you do with them? Let’s say that you want to transmit some sensible information to someone, and you don’t want the message to be seen or be recorded in Facebook archive. With this new service at your disposal, you are capable of achieving that. Just push the hourglass button to turn on the feature.
Write something down to your friend in need and push send. The IM will transmit the message, as it should. What’s the twist to this you say? Well, after the viewer reads it, the message just vanishes into thin air. With this option on, Facebook messenger will store all messages and delete them after an hour.
With this new service, Facebook aims to imitate real-life conversation, where every aspect of a conversation in store into our mind and then disappears after a while. Also, Facebook wants to keep up with the competition.
Other social platforms such as Snapchat or Google have similar privacy services. For example, Snapchat has an option in the chat window that once activated will delete all messages after you labeled them as read. Google has a similar option. You can choose to prevent Google chat to actively store your conversations.
We cannot say for sure when the service will be available worldwide. Officials from Facebook announced that the little experiment is limited to France only.
Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that the service will not be fully integrated in Facebook messenger, meaning that you can turn it on and off whenever you like.
Image source:www.wikimedia.org
