Umar Farooque 
Signal confirmed to add a feature to set a preconfigured custom timer for disappearing messages for all chats. Users needed to manually configure the disappearing messages feature before. But now you can preconfigure all group and personal chats can be with the help of a predefined timer. This feature for Signal was first came into action in 2016. It allowed to automatically delete messages after a specified amount of time. Signal has gained popularity after WhatsApp’s privacy policy row earlier this year.
Shout out to everyone who's been asking for this for a while.
— Moxie Marlinspike (@moxie) August 10, 2021
Now you can set a default disappearing message timer in Signal. All new groups you create or new conversations you initiate will be preconfigured with it. https://t.co/QGWv6DTx6V
Signal announced the new feature via a blog post. Read the original post here- https://signal.org/blog/disappearing-by-default/
They mention that this feature is for reducing storage space and limiting the amount of conversation history. They also mentioned that one can also preconfigure the disappearing chat in “Note to Self” chat. However, Signal also warned users that the disappearing messages function doesn’t guarantee utmost privacy. It is because the recipient can take a photo of the chat with another device before the message disappears.
To set a timer for disappearing messages-
- Tap on the three-dots icon
- Cick on Settings.
- Go to Privacy
- You will find an option for Default timer for new chats.
- This menu gives you nine options. They are- Off, 4 weeks, 1 week, 1 day, 8 hours, 1 hour, 5 minutes, 30 seconds, and Custom time.
