The issue was reportedly present in WhatsApp for iOS
Users are not yet allowed to view the "view once" media on Web versions
Meta has yet to publicly address the issue
WhatsApp introduced the 'View Once' feature for photos and videos in August 2021
Photo Credit: Meta
WhatsApp introduced the 'View Once' feature for photos and videos in August 2021 and it was brought to voice messages in December 2023. To enable the feature for any given media, the sender is required to tap the ‘1' icon before sharing. All media shared with the View Once toggle enabled disappears after it is viewed or played one time by the recipient. Recently, concern over a feature's bug resulting in indefinite viewing surfaced online. A report now claims that the company has rolled out a quiet fix for it.
WhatsApp Quietly Fixed View-Once Media Bug
According to a report by the Android Police, WhatsApp has rolled out a fix for a view-once media bug that allowed recipients to access the limited-time media after the one-time viewing. The report claimed that the vulnerability was present in WhatsApp for iOS and was not found in Android versions.
The report states that to view the 'view once' photo or media again after it was once opened and closed within a chat, iOS users had to go to Settings, select Storage and Data and then Manage Storage. Once they scrolled down to find the contact who shared the disappearing media and tapped their name, the storage details for that contact appeared. Once the media was sorted by Newest, the previously opened 'view once' media appeared at the top.
The Android Police team were able to internally replicate this functionality and view the "view once" media more than once on Thursday, January 23 but were unable to do so this week. Therefore, the team concluded that Meta rolled out a quiet fix for the bug over the weekend. The company has not publicly addressed the issue yet.
Notably, the report states that a similar issue with view-once media was spotted for WhatsApp web users in September 2024. Users are not yet allowed to view the "view once" media on Web versions of the app, yet there were reports of Web users being able to view as well as save the media. The matter was subsequently fixed in December of that year.
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