Ephemeral Messages

Ephemeral messages are messages built to be temporary — they are automatically deleted after being read, or after a fixed period of time passes, rather than staying in a chat history indefinitely.

The idea mirrors how a spoken conversation works: once it is said, it is not permanently recorded anywhere. This can make people more comfortable being candid, and it reduces how much personal data sits on a server or a device long-term.

View-once media is one specific form of ephemeral content — a photo that disappears after a single view, rather than after a time delay.