WhatsApp is the mobile messaging app that allows you to send text messages, make phone and video calls to friends and family in different countries without paying international fees.
By default, the app has special privacy settings that allow each user to see when you last used the app (last seen), your profile photo, your “About” information, and read receipts. You also allow contacts to see your status updates, and anyone can add you to groups.
If you would like more privacy in the app, these settings can be changed at any time. Here’s how to do it
Currently, WhatsApp privacy settings have three options – Everyone, My Contacts and Nobody. This is used to manage who can see your last seen, profile picture and about details on the messaging platform. Everyone opens these details to everyone, while selecting My Contacts limits them to those in your contact list. To hide these details, users only have Nobody.
Unlike Facebook, users cannot adjust their privacy settings if they wish. For example, to hide their last seen or profile picture from a specific contact, they need to select Nobody, which will hide that detail from everyone.
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The screenshot shared by WABetaInfo is from iOS, but the feature is expected to come to Android as well. The screenshot also shows the “My contacts except…” option for Last Seen, but profile pictures and “About” sections also appear, WABetaInfo said.
The feature is currently in an early stage of development and is expected to be released to beta testers in a future update. To get it first, users can sign up to the WhatsApp beta program on Android and iOS. The feature, when it appears in beta, is still in development and will take a while to appear in stable.
I checked WhatsApp on an iPhone and an Android device, both with the latest update, and there was no forced change of this setting. But while this warning is probably misleading, you should change this setting. If you had already changed it and find it changed again, please let me know. We haven’t seen that before.
This is just one of the critical privacy settings and settings that you should change in WhatsApp. Here you will find all the details on how to make your app as secure as possible.