Meta allows users to leave WhatsApp groups silently in new privacy update
Meta has announced several new features for WhatsApp that will give users more control over messages and additional security.
The privacy updates, which are set to start rolling out in the UK this month, are headlined by a new option to leave group chats silently rather than alerting others.
Meta says that this can prevent unwanted drama and awkwardness as now only group administrators will get a notification when members decide to exit a group using this feature.
The second change will allow users to decide who can and can’t see them when they are online.
An initial setting asks users “Who can see my last seen”, with four options: “Everyone”, “My contacts”, “My contacts except…” and “Nobody”.
A second setting then asks “Who can see when I’m online”, with two further settings: “Everyone” and “Same as last seen”.
WhatsApp says that this will allow users to check the app privately if they want to.
Finally, users will now also be able to block screenshots for View Once messages.
Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said that the latest updates are designed to make messaging on the platform “as private and secure as face-to-face conversations”.
Meta product head Ami Vora concluded: “No other global messaging service at this scale provides this level of security for their users’ messages, media, voice messages, video calls, and chat back-ups.”
Janis Wong, a research assistant at The Alan Turing Institute, said that the new layers of privacy protection are a welcome addition, but urged Meta to make the settings visible to users if they are not turned on by default.