The Asian Age

VIBER ROLLS OUT SELF-DESTRUCTIB­LE ‘SECRET CHATS’

- AGE CORRESPOND­ENT

WhatsApp recently announced the Status feature and with new informatio­n about bringing back the old text Status option back, WhatsApp is definitely making constant news around. However, in the race to the top, Viber recently announced that they have incorporat­ed a new ‘Secret Chats’ feature that will self destruct automatica­lly after some time.

There are times when one wants more secrecy or privacy apart from simple end-to-end encryption­s. This is when we want messages to be completely private and even vanish after some time.

With Secret Chats, you can set a self-destruct timer for every message in the conversati­on. Messages in a secret chat can’t be forwarded and screenshot­s are either totally unavailabl­e or alerted to you by an instant notificati­on in the chat screen. As always, your communicat­ions will continue to be protected by Viber’s end-to-end encryption.

You can have two conversati­ons going with the same person or group at the same time — one regular chat and one secret chat. You’ll know which one of them is secret by the lock badge on the chat icon.

Starting a secret chat from an existing regular chat will not delete or replace the regular chat, it will just start a separate one. Secret Chats are another way Viber users can choose to connect freely and securely. Our goal is to continue to bring you features that will enable you to communicat­e without limitation and without hesitation.

What’s more? You can hide your secret chats and access them later with a PIN. Once you’ve created a secret chat, find it in your chat list, swipe left and select the hide icon.

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