WhatsApp let you choose between four different options for Last Seen: Everyone, Nobody, My contacts, and My contacts except… The last option, which was added earlier this year, lets you hide your last seen status from specific contacts. The new tool that the company is now working on will enable you to configure your online status similarly. Currently, everyone can see when you are online on WhatsApp. The ability to hide the online status has reportedly been one of the most requested features by WhatsApp users. People may want this feature for various reasons, including but not limited to disturbance and stalking concerns. Meta, the WhatsApp parent that we previously knew as Facebook, last year introduced automatic hiding of last seen and online status from unknown persons that you never chatted with on the ultra-popular instant messaging app. However, it didn’t address the concerns to the full extent. Thankfully, the company is now listening to its users and working on a tool to hide online status. It’s worth mentioning here that if you don’t share your online and last seen status, or hide read receipts, you will not be able to see that information for other users as well. Nonetheless, this feature is now in development for WhatsApp apps for Android and iOS as well as the desktop client. The new tool may be available to beta users in the coming weeks. A public rollout should follow soon too. We will keep you posted.
WhatsApp is adding another nifty privacy tool
Over the past few months, WhatsApp has added numerous new features. The instant messaging biggie also has several more in the pipeline. Custom avatars for video calls, enhanced emoji animations, an edit option for sent messages, a longer time limit to delete messages for everyone, richer previews for shared links, and more power to group admins are some of the new “in-development” WhatsApp features. If things go according to plan, the new tools should be available to users in the coming weeks and months. We will let you know when we have more information about these features.
