WhatsApp presented this week a package of functions that strengthen the privacy of users. Although a couple of these features were already available in test versions, they have now been confirmed with the following three new features: control who can see your status online, quietly exit group chats, and block screenshots.
“In addition to these new privacy features coming to WhatsApp, we will continue to create new ways to protect your messages and keep them as private and secure as face-to-face conversations,” he said, mark zuckerbergCEO of Meta, in an entry published on Facebook.
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WhatsApp confirmed the introduction on its platform of a function that allows you to hide the status on-line, that is, the indication of when it is connected. With this change, the Meta-Facebook messenger will remedy a basic issue regarding the privacy and will respond to a long-standing claim.
How to hide online status on WhatsApp
Currently, WhatsApp privacy options allow you to set who can see your last connection time, profile information and photo, but not your online status. Anyone can see it, even if it’s not in the users’ contact list. However, this is already changing.
The option to keep your “online” status private can be activated in the same menu where you select the “Online” setting.last seen”: Settings ► Account ► Privacy. In this menu, you can choose whether anyone can see that you are online, only your contacts, some of your contacts, or no one at all.
If you still don’t have the option to do so, don’t worry: WhatsApp reported that the feature will be available this month and is being implemented gradually.
WhatsApp now allows you to leave group chats silently
This option has been highly demanded by users of the messaging application most used in the world. Until now, at leave a chat group all the members found out about it: “So-and-so left the group”, it was read on the screen.
With the new feature, group members are not notified when someone leaves the group chat. That is why this scoop is known as “stealth mode”.
What changes with the new feature? Only the group administrators know that someone left.
More privacy in WhatsApp: blocks to screenshots
The announcement was also accompanied by another long-awaited function that adds privacy in the user experience: WhatsApp will allow block screenshots to temporary messages.
Unique display function It is a way to share photos or multimedia files that “do not need to have a permanent digital record,” according to the company. Now, by enabling screen capture blocking for these types of messages, Meta increases privacy protection. However, WhatsApp says, this function is in a testing period and it was not announced when it will be available.
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When are the new WhatsApp privacy features released?
The messenger update, with the new options, will start rolling out this month starting in the UK. The launch is global and gradual: It would not take more than a few weeks.
Privacy in WhatsApp: are these functions really useful?
Meta product manager Ami Vora said the update includes “features that allow you to have more control and privacy over your messages.” He further noted, “We believe that WhatsApp is the safest place to have a private conversation. No other messaging service of this scale provides this level of security for its users’ messages, voicemails, video calls and chat backups.”
But the impact of new WhatsApp features It could be less than what the company promises. In statements to BBCresearcher Janis Wong noted that it is always good to offer users more privacy but noted that these features are not enabled by defaultexcept for stealth leaving groups.
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“If it’s not the default, or if users aren’t prompted to reconsider their choices, then it’s not necessarily very useful, if users don’t know this is something they can do,” Wong explained.
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WhatsApp: how to hide your online status and other new privacy features