Without a doubt, Meta (formerly known as Facebook) is trying to impose its complete control over the virtual world, cutting off competition especially with apps like Signal and Telegram that have become highly popular among users. This has prompted the company to make some adjustments to WhatsApp, the world’s most popular instant messaging app, by officially announcing important new features that users have been demanding for a long time.
The new features are solely related to privacy, not things like image or video size control. They include options to customize who can see you online, leave a group without others knowing, and most importantly, block screen captures of certain messages. What are these new features? Are they important? Will they enhance the WhatsApp experience? These are questions I will answer in the following paragraphs.
Control who can see you online on WhatsApp
You may have experienced nosy people asking you who you were talking to on WhatsApp at a certain time, why you didn’t respond to their messages when you were online, and other embarrassing questions that only restrict your privacy and that of most WhatsApp users. This prompted Meta to address this issue by introducing a new option in privacy settings that allows you to control who can see you online, whether from your contacts or others.
Through this setting, you can choose “Everyone” or customize the “Last Seen” option to control who can see when you were last online, in addition to your current status. Many WhatsApp users have been eagerly awaiting this feature, which will be available in the coming days alongside other privacy features that are still undergoing testing.
Read also: How to hide “Last Seen” from specific people on WhatsApp
Block screen captures when using the view once feature
In August 2021, WhatsApp introduced the “View Once” feature, which is a significant privacy feature that allows users to send a photo or video that disappears after a set time in the chat. However, some users have been taking screenshots of these photos, rendering the feature useless as the image remains with them even after disappearing from the chat. To address this issue, WhatsApp will specifically block the ability to take screenshots of photos shared using the view once feature, enhancing user privacy while using that feature. This addition may be late, but better late than never!
For this reason, WhatsApp will block the ability to take screenshots of photos that are shared for viewing only once, thereby enhancing the user’s privacy when using that feature. This addition may be late, but it is better to arrive late than never!
Leave a WhatsApp group without anyone knowing
We already mentioned this feature in an article we published last May about new features coming to WhatsApp, but at that time, the feature was still in the early testing phase and had not been officially announced by Meta.
Groups are an important feature offered by WhatsApp to its users, and Meta pays a lot of attention to group services, including updates and features that we have talked about before or that will be coming soon. This makes WhatsApp users use this service frequently, creating groups randomly, some of which are very useful for work, studies, or family, while others are just for entertainment.
Since groups usually contain a large number of people, this means more messages and notifications, which are often a major reason for leaving the group. Instead of notifying the entire group when you leave, WhatsApp will notify only the group admins.
Read also: 5 different ways to recover deleted photos and videos from WhatsApp
In conclusion | Whether you use WhatsApp from an Android phone, an iPhone, or a computer, the upcoming new features are capable of enhancing your WhatsApp experience. You won’t need external apps or tricks to hide your online status, and you can rest assured that the photos you send for one-time viewing won’t be screenshot. Furthermore, you won’t be questioned about why you left a particular group, strengthening Meta’s actual commitment to user privacy, especially for those who use WhatsApp, one of the most popular instant messaging apps.
Not to mention that you won’t be questioned about why you left a specific group by everyone, meaning Meta is enhancing the privacy of its users, especially for those using WhatsApp, one of the most popular instant messaging apps. As for the expected time for these features to be available, they will likely be in the coming days, or possibly at the beginning of next month, especially since the features we talked about are still under testing.
