WhatsApp is working on a feature that would allow users to hide their online status and recent activity from everyone or from certain users in a future update.
Ability to hide online status and recent activity on WhatsApp under development
As reported by WABetaInfo, the company is now working on the ability to hide your online status, a functionality that many users have been requesting over the years. Being able to hide your online status would be useful for users who want to use the app without being disturbed. As explained by the publication.
It will be possible to configure who can see when we are online right within our last seen settings thanks to two new options: “Everyone” and “Same as Last Seen”. For example, if you choose “My contacts” for “Last Seen” and “Same as Last Seen” for “online”, it means non-contacts won’t be able to see when you’re online.
Last month the platform introduced a new privacy setting for users to control which contacts can view their profile picture, Last Seen status, and About information. So, it is nice to see WhatsApp building upon those privacy features and taking additional steps to protect its users’ privacy.
Though the screenshot shared by the publication shows WhatsApp beta for iOS, the same feature will be coming to WhatsApp beta for Android and Desktop beta in a future update.
Currently, the feature is still under development so we do not know when it will become available for public testing. But, hopefully, the company will drop it for all users in a future iOS update sooner than later.
In June, WABetaInfo also reported that the instant messaging platform is working on the ability to react to messages by using any emoji. Currently, there are six available reactions for users: Like, Love, Laugh, Surprised, Sad, and Thanks depicted by six emoji which include thumbs up, heart, face with tears of joy, face with open mouth, crying face, and folded hands.
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