Social media giant Facebook is trialling a feature in France that lets people send self-destructing messages with its Messenger app.
"Disappearing messages gives people another fun option to choose from when they communicate on Messenger," Facebook said in a statement to CNET.
"We look forward to hearing people's feedback as they give it a try."
Messages will delete themselves after an hour.
To turn on disappearing messages within the app, Messenger users in France will tap an hourglass icon Facebook is including in the app.
Another tap on the hourglass will turn the feature off.
The move seems to take aim at Snapchat, which Facebook tried unsuccessfully to buy two years ago for a reported $US3 billion.
The self-deleting message feature is limited to France for now, but Facebook told Buzzfeed it might roll it out elsewhere in future.
