Many users have asked for the ability to hide their online status over the years. People may want to use WhatsApp in stealth mode for a variety of reasons, including the desire to avoid being bothered by other users or the feeling of being stalked. Since we are aware that many users desire this feature, we also developed a concept to turn off the online status last year. This is a good way to provide feedback to WhatsApp.
And yes, if you’re here, you already know what the announcement is about: WhatsApp has developed a feature that will allow users to choose who can see when they are online on WhatsApp and will be made available in a future update in response to user feedback!
WhatsApp bringing ability to hide your online status
As you can see in this screenshot, two new options—”Everyone” and “Same as Last Seen”—will allow you to control who can see when we are online within our last seen settings. For instance, choosing “My contacts” for “Last Seen” and “Same as Last Seen” for “online” ensures that people who are not in your contact list cannot see when you are online.
Last year, WhatsApp started automatically hiding your last seen from contacts you’ve never talked to. This was done to stop third-party apps from tracking when you were last online and when you were last seen. We used to be able to chat with people who could still see when we were online, but with the new privacy setting “who can see when I’m online,” that will no longer be the case.
Even though the screenshot was taken while WhatsApp beta for iOS was still in development, it should be noted that WhatsApp plans to add the same feature in a later update of WhatsApp beta for Android and Desktop beta as well.
We regrettably do not yet know the specific date that this feature will be made available to the general public because it is still in development. If we learn more about the release of this feature in a future update, we’ll let you know in a new post, so be sure to check back often!
