Avoid Friends, Family With New WhatsApp Privacy Features
WhatsApp's latest privacy features(Opens in a new window) let users quietly exit group chats, hide their online status, and prevent others from screenshotting ephemeral messages.
Mark Zuckerberg, head of WhatsApp parent company Meta, announced the changes(Opens in a new window) on Tuesday, and promised to "keep building new ways to protect your messages and keep them as private and secure as face-to-face conversations."
Everyone knows when you've left a WhatsApp group chat—potentially making things awkward for real-life interactions or other digital conversations. Moving forward, the Facebook-owned company will let people sneak out silently, alerting only admins to your departure. Of course, savvy users will be able to figure out you've left when those double check marks turn blue and you don't respond. But at least your departure won't be so obviously announced.
WhatsApp in December made the ability to hide users' last seen and onlines status from unknown contacts the default. Now it's taking things a step further with "online presence control," which lets you peruse the app icognito. Rolling out this month to all users, the feature lets folks curate who can see their online status—and who can't. Edit your list anytime, swapping people out or in depending on your (or their) mood.
WhatsApp introduced Snapchat-esque "View Once" photos and videos last year, but there was still a concern that users would screenshot messages that were meant to be one-and-done. WhatsApp's answer: an experimental blocking function the company hopes to launch "soon."
That's not all the company has up its sleeve. WhatsApp also revealed it's extending the time limit for deleting a message from one hour, eight minutes, and 16 seconds to the much
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