WhatsApp today announced several new privacy features to offer more protection and give you more control over your messages. The new features include the ability to leave groups silently, the ability to select who can and can’t see when you’re online, and the ability to block people from taking screenshots of view once messages. Find the details below.
- Leave Groups Silently: We love our group chats but some are not forever. We’re making it possible to exit a group privately without making it a big deal to everyone. Now, instead of notifying the full group when you are leaving, only the admins will be notified. This feature will start to roll out to all users this month.
- Choose Who Can See When You’re Online: 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.
- Screenshot Blocking For View Once Messages: View Once is already an incredibly popular way to share photos or media that don’t need to have a permanent digital record. Now we’re enabling screenshot blocking for View Once messages for an added layer of protection. We’re testing this feature now and are excited to roll it out to users soon.
- Ability to delete sent messages: You now have a little over 2 days to delete your messages from your chats after you hit send. Previously, you were able to delete messages within only 2 hours of sending it.
The WhatsApp team also mentioned that they will run a marketing campaign to educate people about the new features.
