WhatsApp has added new privacy features to its app in the last few days so that you can chat without worrying about stalkers.
The chat app already gives users the option to hide their last seen and online activities from everyone or from people who are not on the contact list. But you will be surprised to know that there are certain apps that can stalk your WhatsApp activities, and the new privacy measures prevent them.
The information comes from WABetaInfo, which shared an email response from WhatsApp customer support. The email confirms that the new privacy features are now effective for all WhatsApp contacts – including business accounts, “making it harder for people you don’t know and haven’t chatted with from seeing your last seen and online presence on WhatsApp.”
Essentially, there are several third-party apps that can keep track of a WhatsApp user’s last seen and online activities.
And this is despite the “Nobody” privacy option being enabled. Not only do these apps track your activities, but they also log them for anyone who wants to keep surveillance on you. For stalkers like these, WhatsApp’s new feature is a boon.
Unless these third-party apps are not on your contact list or have an active chat with you, they will never be able to find out when you last saw messages or when you were online. The customer support’s email, however, does not say anything about the “Everyone” privacy setting and whether turning it on will also hide the last seen and online status of a user.
How does it work?
Anyway, the report also mentioned that if you have chatted with an account but you still cannot see their last seen status, that is because they have enabled the “My Contacts Except” privacy setting, which is available to some beta users of WhatsApp for Android and WhatsApp for iOS. But for everyone else, the new privacy measures will not change anything. This means that your existing chats with contacts and businesses will not be affected.
In other news, WhatsApp was recently spotted testing the waveform appearance for voice messages. The new-look will go well with what the feature is intended for, and it will also allow users to figure out if they should listen to the message on a speaker or if they need earphones to listen to it. The feature is still in beta testing and will take some time before WhatsApp rolls out for everyone.