WhatsApp updated privacy features with the ability to hide your online status

WhatsApp recently introduced several crucial privacy enhancements, such as the online status blocking option it recently demonstrated in beta, according to TechCrunch. The goal is to make WhatsApp "as private and secure as face-to-face conversations," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Facebook.

The new "online presence control" function allows you to appear to be offline while sending messages. This adds another layer of privacy above the ability to conceal your "last seen" status from certain people, which was introduced earlier this year.

You may fine-tune the function in detail, limiting who is allowed to see your online presence. There are no limits, and you can replace people in and out at any moment. Later this month, the functionality will be made available to all users on both desktop and mobile platforms.

What's more, WhatsApp is now testing a feature that prevents you from taking a screenshot of a view-once message after it has been viewed once. When those communications were first introduced last year, Meta warned users to be cautious since they wouldn't know if someone had taken screen captures of them. A new mode that allows you to prevent screenshots of this type is now being tested, but the firm plans to implement it for all users "soon."

With the last adjustment, you may depart groups privately without sending out a mass notification to everyone else that you've quit. Group owners will still be contacted, though. That should save some embarrassment when it comes to the desktop and mobile apps later this month.