It's all the trend: disappearing messages. We've seen it on Snapchat, where it all began. We've seen it's coming on WhatsApp, too.

Now Facebook - which owns the latter above company - is going all-in with disappearing messages, with both Facebook Messenger and Instagram set to get a new vanishing mode.

Messenger already has the feature enabled for US users, with expansion into additional countries expected in the near future. To have messages set to disappear you'll need to have the mode enabled - a simple swipe up within a chat does this - which will see messages gone once the conversation is over. This replaces the previous secret mode, we believe.

To be clear: you don't have to enable this mode. Messenger can continue to function as normal, with your conversations stored to look back over.

Instagram is a place where you're likely more familiar with disappearing content - stories come, stories go - but now vanishing mode means you'll be able to have chats disappear too. Although there's a caveat: this is only supported by Instagram's Messenger-based chat, so it's really the same experience as above.

This might all stop your inbox getting clogged up with throw-away messages when all you want to do is look at the pretty pictures. It's also a good auto-security measure, to ensure personal data isn't available in the event of a hack. But call us old school, we prefer to keep message chains in tact. But at least now - or soon - the choice will be yours.