How to Change the Duration or Duration of Messages – Snapchat

Snapchat is an engaging app that encourages people to chat and chat without worrying that messages will stay on servers forever. Therefore, all conversations disappear immediately after you see them.

It’s good to know that there are ways to replace when messages are lost. Also, there is a way to save some messages that are too valuable to be lost.

This article will explain how to change the messages expiration time and how to save a Snapchat message.

Replace When Messages Expire

If you don’t want your messages to disappear immediately, you can change the conversation settings. However, you will only be able to change the expiration time to 24 hours after viewing.

To change the expiration time, you need to:

1. Open Snapchat.
   

   

2. Sign in to your account if prompted.
   

   

3. Go to the ‘Chat’ option at the bottom left of the screen.
   

   

4. Select the conversation you want to change.
   

   

5. Long press this friend’s name and click the 3 dots icon in the top right.
   

   

6. Select ‘Delete Conversation’ from the menu that appears.
   

   

7. Choose whether you want chats to disappear immediately after viewing or after 24 hours.
   

   

Note that you will need to manually select the message expiration date for each conversation. That way, you can set some conversations to disappear immediately after viewing and let others stay for up to 24 hours.

Also, if you go back to ‘After Watching’, all chats from the previous 24 hours will disappear instantly. So be careful if you want to go back.

Note that either party can change the settings of the conversation.

What is the ’24 Hours After View’ Option?

If you choose ’24 hours after watching’, you can check the conversation for 24 hours after you open it for the first time.

’24 hours after viewing’ means the message removal timer will start counting after the recipient sees the message. Not when you send it.

So imagine someone sends you a Snapchat message every day, but you only open the conversation on the fifth day. If you’re opening messages for the first time, they expire 24 hours after they’re opened. However, if you open a message every day, each one will disappear after 24 hours.

What Happens If You Don’t Open The Message?

If someone sends you a message and you don’t open it, Snapchat won’t delete the message right away. Instead, Snapchat keeps unread messages on the servers for up to 30 days.

If you don’t open a message within 30 days, Snapchat will automatically remove it from the servers.

Saving Your Snapchat Messages

If you want certain messages or chats to stay after the 24-hour limit, you can save them. This way you can prevent some important conversations from getting lost.

To save Snapchat Messages, you must:

1. Open Snapchat.
   

   

2. Open the ‘Chat’ menu at the bottom left of the screen.
   

   

3. Search for a conversation you want to record.
   

   

4. Tap the message you want to save.
   

   

5. When the new window opens, select ‘Save in Chat’.
   

   

6. The background of the saved chat should turn gray.

If you saved the wrong message or don’t want to save it anymore, just press and hold on them to “Cancel saving”. If the messages have expired, they will disappear when you close the chat.

Note that when you save a message, it remains on the server. This means that the other person will also see that you have recorded the message. So it will appear in the conversation for both of you as long as it’s saved. Only the user who saved the message can remove it.

Deleting Your Snapchat Messages

Sometimes you can accidentally send an unwanted message. Fortunately, if the recipient hasn’t seen it yet, you can remove it from the conversation.

When you want to delete a message, you must:

1. Open Snapchat.
   

   

2. Tap on the ‘Chat’ option in the lower left corner of the screen.
   

   

3. Search for a message you want to delete.
   

   

4. Tap and hold the message until a new window opens.
   

   

5. Select ‘Delete’ to delete the message.
   

   

Note that sometimes the recipient can see the message before you remove it, so you should act quickly. This will notify the recipient that you have deleted a message, but they will not know what the content is.

If You Want to Keep Messages – Save

If you want your messages to stay visible for more than 24 hours, the best way is to save them. Sometimes, however, you may not want to let the other party know that you have recorded a particular message.

Unfortunately, the other party will receive a notification even if you just want to take a screenshot of the conversation. This also happens with screen recording, so if you’re trying to capture someone’s Snapchat messages privately, you’ll probably want to resort to taking a photo with another device or using an app that will do it for you.

Since a conversation involves both parties, all recorded messages will remain visible to every participant.

Pin Conversations

You may have noticed that Snapchat has recently added a ‘Pin Conversation’ option to its messaging menu. When you visit your chat list within the app, you can long press a friend’s name to access this “new” menu. A popup will appear and you can tap on ‘More’.

This menu brings all kinds of features. From removing a friend to editing their name and adding emojis, there are lots of customization options here. If you want to pin the conversation, simply click on the option to do so.

Once this is done, the Snapchat user in question will always appear at the top of your menu. Whether you’re trying to keep a Snapstreak or keep someone in a BFF status, pinning their conversation means they’ll stay at the top of your chat list. Even getting new messages or chatting more with someone else doesn’t affect the PIN.

You will know these messages are pinned because they will have a small red pin to the right of their name. This is another way to make sure your closest friends are never neglected on Snapchat.