WhatsApp view once text messages: they vanish after reading

How do view once text messages work?

Type your message as usual, then press and hold the send button instead of tapping it. A menu appears, and you pick "View once". The first time you use it, a short info screen explains the rules and you confirm with "OK".

The text doesn't show up in the conversation itself. The recipient sees a tile, taps it, and the message opens in a separate window. Close that window and the content is deleted for good, with no way back through the chat history. If both people have read receipts turned on, the sender sees a status saying the message was opened.

Can you screenshot a view once message?

Not in the app. The text can't be copied, forwarded or saved, and WhatsApp blocks screenshots and screen recording as well. The obvious workaround is a second phone pointed at the screen, and WhatsApp can't do much about that.

A floating navigation bar is coming too

Another beta build, 2.26.45.5, shows a redesign of the Android app. The fixed bottom navigation bar is being replaced by a semi-transparent, floating one. Scroll down the chat list and it shrinks into a small rounded pill with the text labels hidden. Scroll up and it expands again. It covers all the main tabs: Chats, Updates, Contacts and Calls.

Both features are rolling out gradually to people enrolled in WhatsApp Beta on Google Play. There is no official date for the stable release, though given how far along testing is, a wider rollout could come within weeks.