messengerdisappearing-messages
A disappearing-message mode for Messenger's end-to-end encrypted chats, with safety controls like reporting and screenshot notifications that outlast the message itself.
Disappearing messages in Messenger, with controls for choosing when new messages clear.
Messenger disappearing messages let people set a conversation so new messages clear themselves after a set time, for the moments that do not need to live in a chat history forever. In Messenger's end-to-end encrypted chats the timer runs 24 hours, and the setting is scoped to the thread so both people know they are in it.
A disappearing message still has to be reportable after it disappears, so the system holds onto what it needs to act on a report without keeping the message readable in the thread. If someone screenshots a disappearing message, the other person is notified. Ephemerality and accountability usually pull against each other, and most of the work was in the seams that let a message vanish from the thread while a report on it still went through.
In my role as design lead on the project, I simplified the interaction model, retired and consolidated Messenger's legacy Secret Conversations product offering, and rolled out a companion feature on Instagram's dedicated messaging service, Instagram Direct.