Temporary conversations
Chats that delete themselves, and the one thing to get right about turning them on.
A temporary conversation deletes itself after a period of inactivity: the messages, the answers and anything you uploaded in it.
Use one when you genuinely do not want a record. Trying out a wording, pasting something you would rather not leave lying around, a quick question that would only clutter your list.
Turning it on
You have to switch it on before you send the first message. Start a New Chat, then click the crossed-out eye in the top bar. It turns amber. Now type.
The toggle disappears once the conversation exists. There is no way to make an ordinary conversation temporary after the fact: the record already exists, and hiding it later would not undo that. If you forget, delete the conversation instead.
Every new chat starts ordinary. Temporary mode is not a setting you leave on.
Recognising one
An amber Temporary label sits in the top bar, and temporary conversations carry the same crossed-out eye in the sidebar. Hover the label to see the expiry rule.
How long they last
One hour of inactivity by default, and the clock resets every time you send a message. So a temporary conversation you are actively using does not vanish mid-thought.
You can change it to 24 hours in your profile. Those are the only two options.
Keeping one after all
Click Keep this chat in the top bar. The conversation becomes ordinary, stops counting down, and stays in your list.
Do this before you close the tab if you decide the throwaway conversation was actually useful. Once it expires, it is gone: no bin, no undo, no recovery by an administrator.
Limits
- You cannot share a temporary conversation. Keep it first, then share.
- Files uploaded in one are deleted with it.
- Agents with scheduled runs do not post into temporary conversations.