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WhatsApp remains one of the most popular chat apps in the world thanks to its ease of use and the fact you can text, video call and send images and videos for free to anyone with an iPhone or Android phone. The app is relatively simple but does have some additional features that you can use such as the ‘View Once’ option that lets you send photos or videos to individuals or group chats that can only, as the name suggests, be viewed once.
This tool mirrors Snapchat, where media sent on the app disappear by default after once viewing, but on WhatsApp it’s one of several options. But WhatsApp users with iPhones are being warned that the View Once feature has a flaw that means supposedly disappearing photos and videos are not in fact being deleted.
These people are being urged to update their version of the free WhatsApp app as soon as possible in order to fix this bug.
The View Once flaw was first reported on blog site Medium by security researcher Ramshath, who noticed they could bypass the function.
“A friend sent me a “View Once” image,” Ramshath said.
“I opened it, triggering the feature to delete the media as soon as I closed it. Out of curiosity, I navigated to Settings > Storage and Data > Manage Storage. I located the sender’s chat, sorted the storage by “Newest,” and there it was — the “View Once” image, still accessible.
“Instead of disappearing like a responsible guest, the image decided to hang around in WhatsApp’s Manage Storage area, defying the very idea of “View Once.””
Though the image disappeared from the WhatsApp chat, it remained in the phone’s memory, discoverable if you know where to look.
The researcher goes on to say they reported the flaw to Meta, the owner of WhatsApp that also owns Facebook and Instagram. The tech giant said it was aware of the bug and was already working on a fix.
The latest release of WhatsApp for iOS, version 25.2.3, fixes this View Once snafu so you can no longer still see them in your iPhone’s storage after they’ve disappeared. This update also lets you dial numbers without first having to save them to your contacts. You can go to the Calls tab and tap ‘call a number’ to dial it and make a WhatsApp call.
You’ll also be able to select participants prior to a group call started from a group chat. This is instead of only being able to call every person a group chat, which you might not always want to do.
Finally, this sizable WhatsApp update for iPhone users also lets you add people to ongoing voice or video calls. You’ll be able to tap on the phone or video icon inside a one-on-one chat while on another call to add that individual to the group call.
Tap here to open WhatsApp in the Apple App Store and then tap ‘update’ to download and install the latest version with the bug fix and these handy new features.
English (US) ·