If you’re very conversant with voice messages on instant messaging apps and services, you will find out that voice messages do disappear and as a newbie you may be wondering why did my voice message disappear.
This is our main focus in today’s question of the day.
I will be explaining the reason why a voice you received suddenly disappeared and I will use the likes of iMessage and whatsapp as an example.
Let’s proceed.
Why did my voice message disappear?
Why voice message disappear is because by default it is set to disappear after two minutes of opening and listening to the received audio messages.
Also, on the sender’s side, the audio message will expire two minutes after sending the audio message on iPhone or iMessage.
On iMessage and whatsapp, audio or voice messages can disappear though they work differently.
The way disappearing messages works on iMessage is quite differenton whatsapp and other instant messaging apps and services.
To give a better explanation on why did my voice message disappear, I will explain them one after the other.
Why did my voice message disappear on iMessage?
On iMessage, by default voice messages are set to disappear two minutes after the recipient has listened to the audio message, and the sender sending the audio message.
If you received an audio message on your iPhone, once you opened the message and listened to it, it will disappear after two minutes.
On the sender’s side, the audio message will as well expire or disappear after two minutes of sending the audio message.
This is how iMessage audio messages work.
It has expiring time but it is left for you to take the necessary measures to prevent the audio message from getting deleted on your iPhone.
And it’s so simple as all you need to do is to set your audio messages never to expire.
Eveh with the latest ios 16 update, iMessage audio messages or voice messages are set to disappear after two minutes if the recipient has listened to the voice message.
Now the question is how do you prevent such from happening.
It’s so simple, all you need to do is to open the settings app on your iPhone as shown in the picture below.
Scroll down to Messages and open it.
Scroll down towards to the bottom of your screen in the AUDIO Messages section and you will see Expire.
Tap on the expire button and you will see two options;
- After two minutes
- Never
After two minutes: This simply means that any audio messages you received on your iPhone or iMessage will expire after two minutes you opened and listened to the audio message.
By default, iMessage audio messages are set to this very option and this is why yo audio messages are disappearing after two minutes.
Never: This option will prevent your audio messages from disappearing unless you deleted them by yourself.
So if you don’t like the idea of your audio messages or voice messages disappearing after you must have listened to them, kindly set it to Never to disappear.
Once you have done that, you will no longer be asking why did my voice message disappear on iMessage.
And don’t forget to read, How do you know if someone heard your audio message on iPhone.
Why did my voice message disappear on whatsapp
Audio messages don’t disappear on whatsapp, but it you have disappearing messages enabled on your whatsapp account, both audio messages and chat messages will disappear at a stipulated time.
Unlike iMessage, on Whatsapp you don’t have anything to do in order to prevent your whatsapp audio messages from disappearing as it will forever remain unless you choose to delete the audio messages or delete your whatsapp account.
You may want to read: How to listen to audio message on iPhone without them knowing?
So when talking about why did my voice message disappear, it usually occurs on iMessage and it is due to the fact that iMessages are set to expire by default.
All you have to do is to set your audio messages or voice messages never to expire and you’re good to go.
Do voice messages disappear for both people?
The answer is yes. By default, voice messages do disappear for both parties involved if they didn’t set audio messages never to expire.
As audio messages don’t disappear for both parties involved, in a situation whereby the recipient didn’t set audio message Never to expire, on the sender’s side it won’t disappear and instead what the sender will see is Played.
Here, played simply means that the recipient has listened to the sent audio message.
Played is equal to Read in terms of texts or chat message.
So when it comes to disappearing audio messages on iMessage, by default as it will disappear for both parties involved unless audio messages are set to Never Expire.
How to delete audio messages for both on iMessage
To delete audio messages for both parties on iMessage, simply press hold on the sent audio message and tap on Undo Send.
It will immediately delete the sent audio message for both parties or everyone involved.
Here comes the best part.
Even if the recipient has opened and listened to the audio message, once you tap on the Undo Send button, it will delete the audio message for everyone involved.
However, you have a space of two minutes to do that and if it exceeds two minutes of sending the audio message, you can’t delete it for everyone but just for yourself.
Don’t Miss: How to block text messages on iphone without opening it.
Do audio messages disappear if you don’t listen to them?
The answer is no. Audio message will never disappear if you didn’t open and listen to it, it will only expire once you have opened and listened to the audio message.
However, this will occur if you didn’t set your audio message settings to Never expire.
If you set your audio message settings to expire After Two Minutes, once you listened to an audio message on your iPhone, it will disappear after two minutes.
So it is better to set it Never to expire unless you have your reasons.
Can you get back a voice message that disappeared?
So far you can’t get back a voice message that has disappeared on iphone or iMessage.
However, there are some sites or tools offering a process as to how to recover disappeared audio messages or voice messages on iPhone.
I haven’t tested them to see if they are genuine and real.
Aside from that, you can’t recover or retrieve disappeared messages on iPhone and even on iCloud and that is quite painful and annoying.
Talking about why did my voice message disappear on iMessage or iPhone, kindly note that by default, audio message or voice message are set to disappear after two minutes of listening to the audio message.
But it is left for you to make the necessary changes especially if it annoys you that audio messages are disappearing.
And this is where I come to the conclusion on the question of the day, why did my voice message disappear on iMessage or iPhone.
