WhatsApp is increasing privacy options: you need to know this


WhatsApp owner Meta continues to look for ways to improve your privacy in the chat app. There are three new privacy options for WhatsApp. This changes.

A while ago WhatsApp already introduced the option to control which of your contacts can see exactly when you last opened the app, what your status and profile picture are and more. The following related privacy options are also being rolled out:

1. Get out of groups unnoticed

You know how it goes with WhatsApp groups. In the beginning it is nice to receive all kinds of funny photos and videos, but at some point it is ready. If you now leave a group conversation, this is immediately visible in the chat: Pete has left the group. This may not suit everyone in the group.

To prevent friction within the group, you will soon be able to leave a group conversation unnoticed, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced. Of course you can still see that someone is no longer in the group app, but by default there will no longer be a notification from inside. Only group admins will see the notification.

Soon you will no longer receive notifications when someone leaves a group conversation.

2. Hide Online Status

In the new update of WhatsApp you can decide for yourself who can see that you are online. If you enable this option, not everyone can see that you are in the app to read a message. The word ‘online’ no longer appears under your name at the top of a chat window.

It was already possible to disable read receipts so that others cannot see if you have read a message. The option to hide your status already appeared in a test version of the app in July this year. The feature will soon come to all versions of the chat service.

3. No More Screenshots

Another new privacy option relates to the one-time view in WhatsApp. As the name suggests, WhatsApp allows you to send photos and videos, which can only be viewed once by the recipient. The media sent is not stored on the recipient’s device and cannot be forwarded.

Unfortunately, the one-time display option isn’t completely foolproof right now. This way you can take a screenshot or screen recording of the media before the photos and videos disappear. And then of course there is no longer really a one-off display.

To counter this, WhatsApp will now block screenshots with one-time views, in a similar way to Snapchat. Although it is in principle still possible to take a screenshot, for example with a second phone, it has become a lot more cumbersome to save a one-time photo or video.

Snapchat does not allow you to take screenshots of ‘snaps’. WhatsApp is going to introduce a similar function.

WhatsApp users often don’t get new features all at once. If you don’t see the options yet, you need some patience. In any case, make sure you have the latest version of WhatsApp on your device, that always makes a difference!

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