WhatsApp rolls out hide status when online feature, here’s what it does

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg last month announced three new features for WhatsApp including an ability to select who can see when you’re online. This is one of the most highly-awaited features on WhatsApp and it’s now finally rolling out in the beta version for users.

To recall, WhatsApp also announced this feature in August this year. The chat app on its blog post wrote, “Seeing when friends or family are online helps us feel connected to one another, but we’ve all had times when we wanted to check our WhatsApp privately. For the moments you want to keep your online presence private, we’re introducing the ability to select who can and can’t see when you’re online. This will start rolling out to all users this month.”

According to WaBetaIfo, the website that tracks all the WhatsApp-related update, the chat app is releasing the feature to the beta testers that install the latest WhatsApp beta for Android 2.22.20.9 update. To see if you have received this feature, go to Settings > Account > Privacy. If it shows “Last seen and online” then it means the feature is already available for your account. To enable it, select “same as last seen”.

WhatsApp recently also added extra layers of protection to make the privacy of the app top-notch. The company announced the ability to leave chat groups silently. It allows a person to leave a group silently. Instead of notifying the full group when you are leaving, only the admins will be notified.

While WhatsApp already has a View Once feature that prevents the misuse of a photo or video shared on app, it has now also introduced screenshot blocking for these View Once messages. This will add an extra layer of protection to the messages.

WhatsApp will soon also let you send messages to yourself from linked device. The user will be able to see his or her number when searching for contacts.