It’ll be an extra dose of privacy to keep yourself safe online
In November of last year, WhatsApp added the option to hide your Last seen status from specific contacts. It was a step in the right direction for privacy, but it’s not the only feature the company has been working on since then. Earlier this month, WhatsApp introduced the ability to hide your online status, and now, the feature is working its way to the Android version of WhatsApp beta.
With WhatsApp beta for Android version 2.22.16.12, the folks at WABetaInfo could access a new privacy setting. Based on the report, opening the app and navigating to Settings > Account > Privacy > Last seen and online reveals an option to choose who can see when you’re online. The option is directly tied in with the Last seen setting as you can only choose whether to have everyone know your availability or only those who can see your Last seen.
The company’s decision to keep online availability dependent on the Last seen status might seem amiss, but it does make sense. After all, if you don’t want a particular person or group of people to see your Last seen status, you likely don’t want them to see your online status either. So it saves you the hassle of configuring two different settings.
It seems like a straightforward addition at best. But it’s a feature that should further bridge the gap between the official WhatsApp app and mods like GB WhatsApp, which users may install for the extra privacy options. It’s not just the knock-offs that the update addresses — feature-packed rivals like Telegram have had similar capabilities for a long time. So while it’s good to see it finally arrive on WhatsApp, the new experience is still in beta. You’ll have to wait until it hits the stable channel to use it.
