Have you ever wondered how to exit a WhatsApp group quietly or avoid appearing as “online”? Now, this is really likely. Three new privacy-related features were recently added to the well-known messaging service WhatsApp. You can also secretly leave WhatsApp groups and prevent screenshots from being taken of ‘see once’ images.
On August 9, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, and Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp, unveiled the new features.
Previously, users could only hide their “last seen” status, but now the firm lets you hide your “online” indicator or decide with whom you want to broadcast the status. The last seen online status can be totally hidden from everyone, just unidentified numbers, certain contacts, or nobody. Under the last seen settings, the feature will include a new “who can see when I’m online” option with the choices “everyone” and “same as last seen.”
Second, users will have the option to depart group conversations without leaving a “person left the group” notification on the chat. Currently, when someone joins or leaves a group chat, the software automatically notifies all other participants. Only the group admin will be notified when a user leaves the group using the new feature, according to WhatsApp.
Thirdly, users can send media files that can only be viewed once by using the “view once” messages. These nonetheless permitted taking screenshots of the media file. In order to prevent people from taking screenshots of their photographs, WhatsApp has included a screenshot blocking capability to its ‘see once’ messaging.
The American business Meta Platforms is the owner of WhatsApp Messenger, a freeware, cross-platform, centralized instant messaging and voice-over-IP service that is accessible worldwide.
This will help maintain WhatsApp chat “as private and secure as face-to-face discussions,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated on Facebook.
Statista estimates that WhatsApp will have two billion monthly active users by June 2022, surpassing WeChat’s 1.2 billion users and Facebook Messenger’s 988 million global users.