Last year, WhatsApp began developing a new privacy setting that allowed users to hide their profile photos, last seen, and About information from specific people in their contact lists. Its availability was limited because it was in beta, but the company has announced that it is now available to all of its users worldwide on iPhone and Android devices.
You had three privacy options for your profile photo, last seen, and About info, and until now: Everyone, My Contacts, and Nobody. These are supplemented by a fourth option, “My contacts except…”, which is also available for Status privacy.
The new option, as the name implies, allows you to show your WhatsApp profile photo, last seen, and About info to everyone in your contacts list except those you exclude. It’s worth noting, however, that if you don’t share your last seen with others, you won’t be able to see theirs either, just like read receipts, with the only difference being that the latter always remains on for group chats even when you turn it off.
You can head over to WhatsApp’s Settings > Account > Privacy menu on iPhone and Android devices to try this new privacy control.
In addition to a new privacy control, WhatsApp announced a few group calling features, including the ability to mute others during a group call while also messaging specific people. When someone joins a group call offscreen, a banner will appear.
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