If you’re a WhatsApp user, you may be wondering why your online status is hidden from strangers. The app has been known to hide users’ online status in order to protect their privacy, but a recent update may be changing that. According to The Verge, the new WhatsApp update includes a feature that allows users to hide their online status from strangers. This is great for those who don’t want others to know about their whereabouts or what they’re up to. WhatsApp also says that this feature is experimental and will be tweaked over time. However, if you decide to use this feature, make sure you have the latest WhatsApp version installed.
WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps around. Unfortunately, with that comes many security issues, including strangers tracking your online status. Thankfully, the company is making it so your online status is hidden by default.
According to WABetaInfo, both the Android and iOS WhatsApp apps will make it so your “Last seen” status is only visible to contacts. Previously, anyone could see when you were last online, which made it a lot easier for strangers to stalk you. This change provides a nice extra layer of security for users of the chat app.
Following the report from WABetaInfo, the company’s support team confirmed the change on Twitter.
Changing your online status visibility to contacts only isn’t new. The change is that it’ll now be the default, meaning you won’t have to go to the app’s settings to hide your online status from strangers. Instead, you’ll need to go to the settings if you want to let everyone see whether you’re online or not.
There are entire apps designed to use publicly available online statuses from WhatsApp to track users, so thankfully, those apps will be rendered useless by this change.
This is an excellent change for WhatsApp. It’ll make using the app more secure without removing any critical functionality from its users, which is really all you can ask for.
