Liam Payne revealed that One Direction will be taking a two-year break when they go on hiatus in March next year.
The band had previously not confirmed the duration of their hiatus.
The four-piece were in the Live Lounge on Greg James's BBC Radio 1 show, performing four acoustic versions of their songs and two covers, when Payne said he would be using the next two years to write more songs for the band.
Payne said: "Obviously we're all going to take a break for a little bit and consider where we are in the world. I just want to write songs, that's been the most fun process out of this, except for touring, has been the writing of the songs and we're going to come back so there's something to write for as well, for us and other people.
"We haven't really had time to write an album and whereas two years off ... Writing's not really a job, it's so much fun, we've always had to rush it so it's nice in these two years I'm going to write some songs and see what happens."
It was the first time that the band had appeared in a live session in the popular Live Lounge slot during their five-year history.
Fans from as far away as Brazil and India were using the hashtag #1DR1LiveLounge which began trending on Twitter during their appearance.
Member Zayn Malik departed the band in March this year and remaining members Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan announced they would be taking an extended hiatus in August following the release of their fifth album Made In The AM.