How to Enable Self-Destructing iMessages

Snapchat made the phenomenon of an expiring message popular, and the demand for similar apps (even Facebook offers temporary statuses) has pushed companies to take the idea of ephemeral communications more seriously. In fact, with Apple's newest operating system, iOS 8, iMessage users can send and receive audio or video messages that expire after two minutes.

Apple has defaulted the multimedia messages to expire when sent to other iMessage users after two minutes, but if you want your recipient to have them forever, go to Settings > Messages and then select "Expire Never" in both Audio Messages and Video Messages.

Photos sent over iMessage aren't technically included in this self-destructing feature, but in the Messages setting, users can choose to keep messages forever, 30 days, or one year. If you opt to keep messages for a limited time, the images received will also be deleted, but it doesn't work both ways. The recipient could still have the messages you sent and any photos that accompanied them on his or her phone!