This Whatsapp feature had been announced for a long time and longed for by many users. With the latest update, you can now hide your own online status. It’s that easy.
Whatsapp is the most popular messenger service worldwide, used by more than two billion people. And until recently it was always possible to see when a contact is currently online. That’s over now. With the latest Whatsapp update, users can now decide for themselves whether their own online status is displayed or not. Or only certain contacts are allowed to see the status.
The latest update makes sense because WhatsApp currently has two major and extremely critical security gaps that can cause problems for all users. An update for simply deleting messages had already provided some relief in the summer.
Online status is displayed under the user’s name in private chats. It says “online” or “last online at…”. This shows whether the person is currently online and the time they were last active in the app.
Turn off or hide online status in Whatsapp
If you do not want friends, acquaintances, relatives or business colleagues to see your own online status, you must proceed as follows:
- open whatsapp
- Go to “Account” in settings
- Under “Account” click on “Privacy”.
- Under “Last online/Online” you can now choose between: “Everyone”, “My contacts”, “My contacts except…” and “Nobody”.
- Important: With “Who can see if I’m online” it is now possible to individually select whether other users will see their own online status. Click on “Same as last online” and accept the corresponding selection.
With the latest update Whatsapp ensures important protection of privacy. It is now possible to individually control that your own boss or partner can no longer check when you are currently online.
Recently there have been repeated discussions as to whether Whatsapp (like Instagram and Facebook) could soon be subject to a fee. Corresponding updates such as the current online status do not provide any further information.
