WhatsApp introduces privacy settings in Android version

WhatsApp has added some privacy features to its Android version. Users can now hide information about when they were last online. Also the profile picture and status can now be hidden.

In the iPhone version, the ‘last seen’ time could be hidden for some time, but that was not possible on Android until now. However, in the latest update of the Android version, that capability is introduced. Users can choose to show the ‘last seen’ time to everyone, just friends or to no one. If they do, they won’t be able to see when others were last online. On the iPhone, users can only choose to show the last seen time to everyone or to no one.

In addition, WhatsApp users on Android can now hide their profile picture and WhatsApp status or only show them to friends. That’s not yet possible on iOS; it is not known whether that functionality will make its way to the iPhone version later. By default, the ‘last seen’ time and the profile picture as well as the status are visible to everyone.

Furthermore, the new WhatsApp update includes a widget for the lockscreen; it can only be installed on devices with Android 3.0 and newer. In addition, it is now possible to pay the subscription costs of WhatsApp for a friend.

Last month it was announced that Facebook is acquiring WhatsApp for approximately 11.5 billion euros, plus approximately 2.1 billion euros in shares that WhatsApp employees can receive in subsequent years. The takeover resulted in many users switching to the alternative mobile chat client Telegram, which claims to have a high level of privacy. However, the privacy options that WhatsApp has now introduced are currently missing from Telegram.