Everything You Need to Know About WhatsApp’s Big Privacy Update
“WhatsApp” and “privacy” have a complex relationship. The app is known to be end-to-end encrypted, which means your messages can only be read on your device and the devices you send those messages to. However, the app is also owned by Meta (née Facebook), known for collecting and abusing user data. However, WhatsApp continues to try to improve overall privacy and security by introducing new features to help users keep their chats, pictures, and online activity private.
WhatsApp announced most of the new features in a blog post on August 9 as part of an ongoing privacy campaign. However, the timeline for when these features will arrive on your device isn’t entirely clear. The blog post says that WhatsApp is adding them “today”, but in the meantime, these features will be available to customers “this month”. You may see some or all of these features active on your WhatsApp right away, or you may have to wait a bit. Either way, here are some privacy improvements you can expect:
Screenshot lock to view once
View Once is WhatsApp’s answer to Snapchat: it gives you the option to send a photo to friends and family that disappears once opened. The use cases are, of course, different. You might want to send a simple outfit post without saving it to your phone’s camera roll, or you might have a private image that you want to share but don’t want to leave the chat.
The View Once photo only works in practice if you know it won’t be shared with the contact who opens it, because since the feature was introduced last year, WhatsApp users have been free to take screenshots of these images, turning the View once” in “View as many”. Time as you like.
However, with the latest WhatsApp update, the app is finally blocking screenshots on any View Once images. If someone tries to take a screenshot of the “View Once” photo, they will only get a warning that the screenshot has been stopped. Whatsapp specifically says that the feature is still in testing but will start rolling out to everyone soon.
Silently leave group chats
Group chats can get boring quickly, but leaving a chat can be more of a headache than it’s worth. Most apps make the point when someone leaves a group chat, openly announcing to everyone in the group that one of the group members is no longer interested in the conversation. Which is worse, a constant barrage of messages in a good mood, or a constant barrage of messages demanding to know why you left the chat?
WhatsApp now allows you to silently leave chats (although group admins will still be notified). The only way for a regular member to know that you’ve left a group chat is to check the member list and see that your name isn’t in the group. It’s still possible for things to get awkward, but that’s much less likely, especially in giant chat rooms.
Choose who sees you’re online
Sometimes we need to chat with certain people, but we don’t want to open an invitation to all of our contacts. WhatsApp online statuses ensure that a simple reply to one friend means that all our contacts will see that we are active and “ready to talk”.
Not only does WhatsApp offer you the option to stay private while using the app, now you can choose who sees you’re online. This way, only the people you most want to talk to will see when you’re active.
Delete messages up to two days later
If you regret some of the things sent via WhatsApp, you might be able to get it all back: the app now allows you to delete messages after 60 hours of sending them. Deleting will remove the message from both your app and the apps of any contacts you sent it to.
WhatsApp initially shared the news on Twitter , stating that you have “just over 2 days to delete your messages”. As WABetaInfo explains below, the official time is two days and 12 hours. Random amount of time, but sure.