Private messaging in BuddyPress is persistent (saved to the db). There is also “flash” messages but these are stored as a cookie and are removed after the page request.
Thanks Henry. So there is no easy way to program around it?
So there is no easy way to program around it?
What are you trying to do?
I want to have messages and pictures disappear after a specified time.
You’d need to build a custom solution because I don’t think there’s anything available, at least for BuddyPress.
Take a look at the WordPress Transients API. That might help.
https://codex.wordpress.org/Transients_API
You could probably run a cronjob to remove various activity items and private message threads if they’re older than a certain interval.
Of course, this would need to be custom-developed.
You could also do it manually using BP Bulk Delete.