The world’s largest social network is testing a new feature that will allow users to schedule deletion of their posts. Think of them like self-destructing posts. You write one and then select the number of hours you want it to remain live after which the post will automatically be scrubbed from your timeline. The feature was first spotted by users earlier this week and Facebook later confirmed that it is indeed carrying out this test.
Initially users noticed this new feature in the Facebook for iOS application. TNW reached out for a comment and Facebook confirmed that it is running a small pilot of a feature “that lets people schedule deletion of their posts in advance.”
Screenshots of this feature are being circulated online and it appears that Facebook will allow users to schedule posts for deletion for up to seven days. The minimum is one hour. Its possible that Facebook might change the choices if and when this feature is rolled out for all users across all platforms.
It should be kept in mind that even though the post will automatically be scrubbed from the user’s timeline after the time runs out, it may take up to 90 days for it to be completely deleted from Facebook’s servers.
Facebook hasn’t confirmed if this feature will go live for all users. The social network regularly tests new features and some of them don’t make the cut so it remains to be seen if self-destructing posts roll out or not.