WhatsApp simply launched a number of necessary privateness options together with the web standing blocking possibility it just lately confirmed in beta, TechCrunch has reported. The purpose is to finally make WhatsApp “as private and secure as face-to-face conversations,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in a Facebook post. 

The new “online presence control” characteristic permits you to ship messages whereas showing to be offline. That affords one other stage of privateness over the power to cover your “last seen” standing from particular contacts, a characteristic launched earlier this yr. 

You can management the characteristic in a granular approach, deciding which contacts can view your on-line standing and which might’t. There are not any limits, and you may swap individuals out and in at any time. The characteristic will roll out to all customers throughout desktop and cell, later this month. 

WhatsApp can also be testing screenshot blocking for view as soon as messages that disappear after a single view. When these messages have been launched final yr, Meta stated that it is best to nonetheless take warning as you would not know if somebody screenshotted them. A brand new characteristic that allows you to block such screenshots is now in testing, however the firm hopes to get it to all customers “soon.” 

With the ultimate change, you possibly can depart depart teams privately with out sending out a mass notification to everybody else that you just’re gone — although group admins will nonetheless be notified. That ought to avoid wasting awkwardness when it rolls out to the desktop and cell apps, additionally later this month.