The messaging app is introducing a few privacy-minded changes. The changes aim to give users more control over their experience while introducing added layers to protect their private communications.
An option for users to privately use the app without being visible online will be introduced. This month, everyone will be able to use the feature to hide their online status from others. You can swap people in and out of the list of contacts who can see your online status. The update will come to both of the company's offerings.
The company is testing whether or not to block the view once messages. The disappearing media option was introduced a year ago to remind users that they wouldn't be able to know if the recipient was saving any shared photos and videos. The feature is currently being tested and the company hopes to have it out to users soon.
New feature alert!
You can now send photos and videos that disappear after they’ve been opened via View Once on WhatsApp, giving you more control over your chats privacy! pic.twitter.com/Ig5BWbX1Ow
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) August 3, 2021
There is a small quality of life update. Users will be able to leave groups without sending out mass notifications. The change should make it easier to move through groups on the app. The change will be rolled out to both the mobile anddesktop versions of the app.
The head of product described the additions as a boost to the app's "Interlocking layers of protection" which aim to bolster its status as a prominent messaging option.
Over the years, the company has made other attempts. It added end-to-end encryption for backups stored in the cloud last fall.
"We will keep building new ways to protect your messages and keep them as private and secure as face-to-face conversation."
Users were sent to rival apps after a confusing privacy policy update in early 2021. The European Commission launched a formal investigation into the app's consumer protections earlier this year, after the same update was released more than a year ago.
WhatsApp given a month to fix consumer ToS concerns in Europe
WhatsApp photos and videos can now disappear after a single viewing
WhatsApp photos and videos can now disappear after a single viewing
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