WhatsApp may soon add expiration dates to group chats so you don't have to deal with as much clutter in your inbox.
If you open your Whatsapp right now, we expect you'll find a backlog of stale chats for long-postponed group projects, coordinating events that happened years ago, and reaching out to school friends you haven't seen in a decade. . You probably forgot most of them a long time ago, with useless chats cluttering your smartphone storage with messages and images of cats you no longer need.
According to a leak, WhatsApp is set to get a feature that will help unclog your inbox called "Expiring Groups" (via WaBetaInfo - opens in a new tab)). If the feature is added, you should find it on the group information page; Using it, you can set when you will be asked to "clean" the pool by choosing a day, week, or custom date. You can also remove the expiration date from the group.
According to the leaked screenshot, each user has to set their own expiration date for the group and it seems that WhatsApp will not automatically delete the group. Instead, it will seemingly remind you that it might be time to leave the group or delete it, but the decision will be up to you.
However, we suggest taking this news with a grain of salt. WaBetaInfo noted that the Expiring Groups feature is still in development. So not only is it apparently not ready for a full rollout, but it's likely to be a while before the feature makes it to WhatsApp beta. As such, we may never see the feature release (devs might decide to remove it) or when expiring groups start, it might work differently.
You don't need to wait for this Expiring Groups feature to launch if you want to delete old WhatsApp groups. In your inbox, long press on the chat you want to delete, then tap the menu button in the corner (the three dots) that appears, then tap Leave group. Alternatively, you can archive the chat so it's no longer in your inbox, but you can come back to the chat later if you'd like.
You can also send self-destruct messages if you only want the chat content to disappear, not the entire group chat.