With almost every update, WhatsApp is offering granular privacy settings to users, allowing them to hide their activity online.
We’ve already seen the platform letting users hide their last seen status to certain people, to which it’s now adding the ability to hide their online status too! This blocks the selected people from knowing when you’re using the app since they can’t view you online.
Blocking Your Online Status
One of the many reasons WhatsApp is a popular messaging platform is its simplicity in texting. With not many heavy graphics or excessive settings, WhatsApp is seen as an easy and quick tool for chatting.
But with more and more people concerned about their online privacy, the platform is rolling out new features to keep themselves private. In this pursuit, we’ve seen WhatsApp rolling out the “My Contacts Except” option to block certain contacts from viewing Profile Photo, About, and Status last month.
And now, the platform may soon allow those selected contacts not to view your “online” status too – appearing when you’re using the app. This is good, as this feature avoids people from knowing whether you’ve seen a message even after coming online – which some tend to ignore.
This support was seen in the latest beta of the iOS clients, but we can expect it to come to other clients too. Though WhatsApp is picking up on the privacy front, it’s late. Support for these kinds of features was already available in other rival messengers, where people cared about their online privacy use.
Yet, WhatsApp is working hard to have all types of people in the community – as it’s working on a number of different features lately. Some include focusing on groups, businesses, and correction of sent messages.
