How to use WhatsApp while maintaining privacy. Do you want to use WhatsApp, but don't want people to know what you are doing? By default, WhatsApp shares your activity with friends and the public in several ways. Privacy-conscious folks will likely have concerns about this.
Thankfully, you can use WhatsApp almost completely in secret. So, try these helpful tips to recover some of your privacy while using WhatsApp.
Disable last view in WhatsApp
By default, WhatsApp lets your contacts know when you last opened the app. You may prefer to hide this information so that people don't wonder why you aren't replying to their messages.
To do this, you must first open WhatsApp. On Android, tap the button Menu a three dots at the top right and choose Settings . For iOS, tap the voice Settings down.
Select Account> Privacy and you will see an option labeled Last access . Touch it and change it from Tutti ai my contacts o None in according to your preferences.
Once you've done this, it will become a mystery when you last logged in. But you won't be able to see when others were online too.
Disable WhatsApp read receipts
Two gray check marks indicate that WhatsApp has successfully delivered the message; turn blue when the other person reads your message.
These are useful for confirming that someone has read your message without replying, but you may prefer that the other person does not know that you have already seen their message. To disable them, go back to Settings> Account> Privacy and deselect Read confirmations down.
If you disable read receipts, you won't see them for others either. And unfortunately, you can't disable read receipts for group chats.
Hide your WhatsApp profile photo
You may have set a profile photo that your contacts but prefer to hide it from people you don't know. Or maybe you'd rather not show your face on WhatsApp.
To change the privacy of your profile photo, go to Settings> Account> Privacy . Select the option Profile picture and choose again Tutti , The my contacts o Nobody . Instead, they will see the generic profile picture.
Exclude contacts from status sharing
Not happy with simple messaging, WhatsApp has also added a "status update" function. Only contacts can view your status, but you can choose exactly which ones enjoy that privilege.
Consultation Settings> Account> Privacy and select State . You have three options: i my contacts there show everyone you know, while i my contacts except allow you to specify people to block. To select Share only if you want to limit your status to only certain people.
Hide your message Information
Your “About” message on WhatsApp is a short bio that people will see under your name. It's more for a funny phrase or joke than for personal information, but you can hide it from unknown users or everyone if you want.
Like many of the other settings we've discussed, you'll find it in Settings> Account> Privacy . Touch Information and choose whether to show your message Information to Tutti , The my contacts o Nobody .
Check if you are sharing your location
WhatsApp allows you to share your location with contacts. You can do this by tapping on the icon Programme in a chat and tapping Location .
While this is useful for short-term cases, you don't want to realize that you've unknowingly shared your position with someone for months.
Thankfully, WhatsApp offers a feature to verify this. In the menu Privacy , touch the item Actual position . You will see if you are sharing your location with chats here and you can disable it in this case.
Use airplane mode with WhatsApp
Airplane mode is useful for a lot of different things. As you probably know, this mode cuts off all wireless communication, so your phone isn't connected to the Internet, Bluetooth, and the like.
While it's intended for use on airplanes (as the name suggests), it's also great for blocking out distractions and hiding ads in mobile games. But you can use it as a quick fix if you want to read a message without notifying the sender.
Toggle the airplane mode shortcut on or off by swiping down with two fingers on Android to open Quick Settings, or swipe up from the bottom to open Control Center on iOS. Then, open WhatsApp and check the message you received. Since you are offline, your “last hour online” will not be updated and the sender will not receive a read receipt.
Of course, you won't get any new messages when you're in airplane mode, so it's not a perfect solution. But it can still come in handy.
Take advantage of popup notifications
You can use WhatsApp notifications to your advantage to read messages without letting the sender know you did. By enabling pop-up notifications on Android or alert notifications on iOS, you can see new messages in a big bubble on the screen.
For Android, go to Settings> Notifications . To select popup notification and change it to Always show popups . You can also choose Only when the screen turns on o deactivates if you prefer. Repeat the operation in the header of the group notifications of followed if you wish.
On iOS, you'll need to change the notification style instead. Go to Settings> Notifications , then select In-app notifications . Here, it changes style di notice in warning . Unlike banners, which appear at the top and then disappear, they require you to close your action.
After doing that, new messages will be displayed on the screen. You can read them and close the popup without marking the message as read.
Conclusions
If you don't want to share more WhatsApp information than necessary, try these eight tricks.
