WhatsApp has brought in new privacy update which will disallow non contacts to see the last seen status of any individual. This new feature has been rolled out for both Android and iOS enabled devices. Now, the unknown users will not be able to see your last seen and the online status post this update. This will further enhance the privacy of the instant messaging platform users across the world. Its competitor, Telegram, has just announced few privacy features earlier this week.
There are various third-party apps on the App Store and the Google Play Store that are able to log the last seen and the online status of select contacts. People use these apps to stalk other WhatsApp users, so they know when other people were online.
“After this latest improvements to protect users, WhatsApp doesn’t show up the last seen and the online status if you have never chatted with another WhatsApp account. Since those third-party apps don’t have an active chat with you, they cannot see when you are online,” noted WhatsApp tracker WABetaInfo.
He further adds, “If you cannot see the last seen of some contacts you already chat with, it’s because they have enabled the privacy setting “My Contacts Except…”, available to some users on WhatsApp beta for Android and WhatsApp beta for iOS, excluding you to see their last seen.”
WhatsApp has also added a new feature which lets users to select messages after reading it for disappearance by default. The new time limit could be a day or a week or three months. It is targeted for users to save the cherished messages and let disappear the rest from the chat box. This might be helpful in creating special moments, says WhatsApp. Earlier it was only limited to seven days. This feature is optional.
