WhatsApp can be rolling out quite a lot of new privateness options that enable its customers to be much more discreet with their on-line chats. The new options embrace exiting a bunch chat with out notifying its members, hiding your on-line standing, and stopping different customers from screenshotting ‘view once’ messages.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced the brand new options by way of a short Facebook post on Tuesday. “We’ll keep building new ways to protect your messages and keep them as private and secure as face-to-face conversations,” Zuckerberg wrote. The common messaging app already makes use of end-to-end encryption, which principally implies that the messages despatched on WhatsApp are solely seen by the individuals sending and receiving them. But the brand new options go a step additional, giving the app’s customers extra instruments to be discreet, and probably ignore distant relations you’ve been avoiding.

The new options will now enable customers to quietly exit group chats with out notifying all of the group members with that always inflammatory “Passant left” textual content. Another addition to the app will let customers management who can see their on-line standing, that means which you could now log into WhatsApp and reply to a message, with out letting somebody know you checked the app. Lastly, one other new function will now block customers from taking screenshots of messages which are meant for viewing as soon as, permitting customers to ship probably risqué texts with out an added concern of it being shared as a receipt (which really won’t be nice if utilized by the unsuitable palms). These new privateness instruments are anticipated to roll out later this month.

Despite its end-to-end encryption, WhatsApp suffered some backlash following an replace to its privateness coverage in 2021 that exposed some knowledge can be shared with the app’s father or mother firm Meta, which is infamous for mishandling person knowledge. Some customers searching for full privateness have opted to make use of Signal, one other encrypted messaging app, as an alternative. It’s not clear whether or not the brand new privateness options are sufficient to lure customers again.