by Privacy is one of the priorities of messaging platforms like WhatsAppwhich frequently updates the functions aimed at protecting user data, with features such as end-to-end encryption or systems such as two-step verification.
In the same sense, the company has months developing new features aimed at having greater control over conversations in different beta versions of this service and that are intended for both individual conversations and group chats.
Some functions are available in the section of Settings menu privacywhere you can modify data such as the time of the last connection, who can see the profile photo or who has access to the States.
For his part, WhatsApp implemented some of these privacy options in August of last year.which are already available to all users, whether they use the desktop version of the platform or do so from iOS and Android devices.
One of the newest options is silently leaving groups, thanks to which users can leave a group chat without being notified on the screen, as was the case before.
In that way, when users want to leave a group, only the group administrator will receive this notice or the administrators in case there is more than one. “The goal of this feature is to help users feel more comfortable leaving groups they no longer want to be a part of,” WhatsApp explains on its website.
Another of the alternatives that allow you to view or save conversations without deleting them is Archiving Chat. Is about an organization tool thanks to which individual or group chats can be hidden in a folder located at the top of the interface.
In this section, all the archived chats are gathered, for which you can also choose a certain configuration, since you can choose whether to keep these conversations archived when messages are received or not. If you do not have it activated, once the contact sends a message, your chat is placed directly in the inbox.
read receipt
Users also have the option to disable read receipts for chats, which means that your contacts will not be able to know if your messages have been read. That way, those who receive them can decide when to respond without pressure.
As specified in the Privacy section of the application, if read receipts are deactivated, these users will also not be able to know if the recipients have opened the chat and have read them.
WhatsApp also allows you to determine what Users can know the ‘Online’ status and from whom it should be hidden. This section is found in the ‘Last time and Online’ section, where the options ‘All’, ‘My contacts’, ‘Nobody’ and ‘My contacts, except…’ are displayed. Choosing this last option automatically opens the contact list to manually select those from whom you want to hide this information.
Silencing individual or group chats is another of the options available in the application to control privacy, which can come in handy in the event that, for example, you are consulting your mobile phone with other people.
In case of muting these notices, a specific time period must be chosen, that is, eight hours, a week or always. WhatsApp reminds, on the other hand, that users and participants in a group conversation will not be able to know if this option has been activated or not and will continue to receive notifications if they have not.
Finally, To choose which photos and videos you want to store in the device’s gallery, the platform has a section in the Storage and data section, in which the download settings should be set.
Although voice messages are always downloaded automatically, whether on WiFi or mobile data, the application distinguishes between ‘Download with mobile data, ‘Download with WiFi’ and ‘While roaming’ the different files received (photos, files audio, video and documents). In this case, you can choose what to download and what not on your mobile.
It should be remembered that all these privacy-focused features are available in both the versions of WhatsApp for iOS and Android as in the Web, Desktop, KaiOS and Windows version.
*With information from Europa Press.
