WhatsApp likely to allow users to hide their online status soon

The Facebook-owned WhatsApp is likely to allow its users to hide their online status from anyone who can't be trusted, a report stated on Tuesday.

As per the report, the new privacy tools are currently in development. If all goes as planned, the users will be able to control exactly who can see parts of a user's profile.

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As of now, "Last Seen," "Profile Picture" and "About" can either be seen by everyone, contacts, or no one. However, there are no customised options yet.

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Such limitations are likely to be lifted soon, as WhatsApp is testing the ability to exclude specific contacts from seeing your status.

With this, the users will be able to hide their "Last Seen" time from people without disabling it altogether. It will also support profile photos and bios, giving much more control over privacy than the previous one.

The disabling of "Last Seen" will continue to be a two-way street. That means if a user hides 'last seen' from a group of people in their contacts list, then WhatsApp will hide their information in return.

Earlier, the WhatsApp had stated that it was working on view once messages. With this, the texts would disappear forever after just being viewed once.

-PTC News