WhatsApp has announced the arrival of its new 'disappearing messages' feature.
This will allow users to send each other texts and media that will vanish after seven days.
The app says it wants to make chats feel more private, with the update set to be sent out this month.
The messaging service, which is owned by Facebook, said in a blog post yesterday that "most of what we send doesn’t need to be everlasting".
The post said: "Our goal is to make conversations on WhatsApp feel as close to in-person as possible, which means they shouldn't have to stick around forever. "
It added that the feature will help "the conversation feel lighter and more private"
Newstalk's Technology Correspondent Jess Kelly believes it will be a good thing for clearing storage on your phone.
She told Newstalk Breakfast: "A lot of people are saying it is looking to rival the likes of Snapchat but that's not really the case.
"Anyone who uses Snapchat will know that messages disappear instantly but with this, the messages disappear after a seven-day period for how and it is more geared towards your storage."
Jess outlined a few things that people need to know about the feature.
She said: "If you're going to do the shopping for me and I send you my shopping list, we don't need to have that in seven days time so I can set that to disappear.
"If, however, we're sending something a bit more sensitive or private information or photographs, and I want to set that to disappear from your phone in seven days, I need to be aware that firstly, you could take a screenshot of that information so it's not fully disappearing.
"If you forward that information to someone, it won't disappear from the person who you forwarded it onto's phone.
"Also, I don't get a notification if that happens.
"Just be mindful, this isn't a 'if it isn't stored on my phone forever it didn't happen' scenario, this is very much from a storage point of view so we're not having 101 different funny memes or gifs stored on our phones for no reason."
Jess said the feature will be applied per conversation, and it is something manual which will have to be turned on and off.
She added: "They may update this feature in the near future to shorten the window so it could be a day, it could be an hour.
"We're starting to see a bit more of this editing structure in WhatsApp."
