How Disappearing Messages Work on Stitch

What disappearing messages actually do

Disappearing messages set a timer on a specific chat so that new messages sent after the timer is turned on automatically remove themselves once the chosen duration passes. Stitch offers three durations: 24 hours, 7 days, and 90 days. It is a per-conversation setting, not an account-wide one — you can have disappearing messages on in one chat and off in every other.

This is different from clearing a chat manually. Clearing removes history you already have; disappearing messages automate that removal going forward, on a schedule you set once and forget about.

Turning it on

1. Open the chat and go to its info screen (tap the name or group photo at the top).
2. Find Disappearing Messages and choose a duration: 24 hours, 7 days, or 90 days — or turn it off.
3. A system message announces the change in the chat so everyone in the conversation knows the timer is active, the same way it would be confusing if messages started vanishing with no explanation.

Only affects messages sent after you turn it on

Turning on disappearing messages does not retroactively remove anything already in the conversation. Only messages sent from that point forward inherit the timer. If you want the existing history gone too, you need to clear the chat separately — disappearing messages and clearing a chat are two different actions.

Turning the timer off works the same way in reverse: messages already "in flight" under the old timer will still expire on schedule, while anything sent after you turn it off sticks around normally.

Disappearing messages in groups

In a group, disappearing messages can be configured so that only admins are allowed to turn the setting on or off, which prevents any single member from changing a decision the group agreed on. This matters in larger or less tightly-managed groups, where you do not want the timer flipped on or off unpredictably by whoever happens to think of it.

What disappearing messages do not protect against

It is important to be realistic about the limits here. Disappearing messages control how long a message exists in the normal course of the app — they do not stop someone from taking a screenshot, forwarding the content elsewhere, or reading it before the timer runs out. If your goal is genuinely sensitive information that must never be retained anywhere, disappearing messages reduce the window of exposure, but they are not a guarantee that the content is unrecoverable once it has been sent and seen.

Disappearing messages are also not the same as encryption — they are a retention setting, and Stitch's standard encryption in transit and at rest applies to messages regardless of whether a disappearing timer is set.

When to use it

• Sharing a one-time code, password, or sensitive detail you would rather not have sitting in chat history indefinitely.
• A conversation you want to keep lightweight and temporary by nature, like coordinating logistics for a single event.
• A group where you want a natural, ongoing cleanup of chat history without anyone having to manually clear it.
• Not a substitute for being careful about what you share in the first place — treat it as a retention convenience, not a safety net.

Choosing between the three durations

24 hours suits genuinely short-lived information — a code, a one-time detail, anything that has no reason to matter tomorrow. 7 days works well for the middle ground of most everyday coordination: a conversation about weekend plans, a back-and-forth that naturally resolves within a week and does not need to be searchable months later. 90 days is more of a background cleanup setting for a chat you want to keep functional and current without it accumulating years of unused history — long enough that you are unlikely to need something from months ago, short enough that the chat does not become an unmanageable archive.

There is no wrong choice among the three, since you can change the duration (or turn it off entirely) at any time — treat the initial choice as a starting point rather than a permanent commitment.

What members see when the timer changes

Because the system message announcing a change is visible to everyone in the chat, disappearing messages are never a silent, invisible change — anyone who was present in the conversation at the time will have seen that it was turned on, turned off, or changed to a different duration. If you join a group after that system message has itself expired under the very timer it announced, you may not see the original announcement, but the current state of the setting is always visible from the chat's info screen regardless of when you joined.