More options for disappearing messages

Feature Proposal
1

I propose more flexibility regarding to disappearing messages. Sometimes contacts take long time to reply, or you want to make appointments in advance, and so having option for longer then 5 weeks is nice for these cases.

WhatsApp has option for 90 day disappearing messages, which is suitable for these cases.

Signal also has option for custom disappearing time, so user can set number of days or weeks if the default time is not suitable. The UI feels clean.

Maybe Delta Chat can also have option like 90 day disappearing messages and custom disappearing time?

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I checked Signal, they have customization that looks not so nice on Desktop as on Android:

signal
signal382×272 9.07 KB

For days highest number is 6 and for weeks highest number is 4, so you cannot even set it to 5 weeks or 15 days with these settings. Translating resulting info messages will also become much more difficult.

I think we should only add 90 days option.

FAQ will also need to be adjusted, currently How do disappearing messages work? says

You can turn on “disappearing messages” in the settings of a chat, at the top right of the chat window, by selecting a time span between 1 minute and 5 weeks.

1 Like
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Android issue: Add "90 days" option for disappearing messages ¡ Issue #3437 ¡ deltachat/deltachat-android ¡ GitHub

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4

Amazing, thanks!

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I created a pull request to add 90 days option to disappearing messages:

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there is already the next request: [UX/UI issue] "Disappearing Messages" seems to lack the common choices of 3/6/12 months - wondering if we should go directly for a year for the usecase "delete somewhen, not for security reasons, but just to cleanup at some point".

this would also sync settings closer to “auto delete”, where after “5 weeks” the next option is also “1 year” - and that without many complains afaik

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For what it’s worth, I use 1 year for security reasons. Avoiding decades long storage at rest in case of device theft on either end, while opting for relatively high convenience.

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