Mark Zuckerberg himself has announced a series of privacy news coming to WhatsApp. Some of them we already knew because they have been in tests and leaked for months, while others catch us a little by surprise.
Specifically, we have three novelties: WhatsApp will allow us to hide that we are online, we can silently leave a group and also ephemeral photos cannot be capturedwhich until now had no protection.
Hide that you are online
WhatsApp privacy options allow you to choose who you want to see your last connection time, but if you are online it is something that users had absolutely no control over. This is about to change with a new privacy option that you can choose from who can see that you are online.
This news has been leaking for a few weeks and now we have confirmation that it will eventually reach everyone. The privacy menu to choose who can see the last connection will also serve to choose who can see that you are connected, with two options: All or Same as last connection time. The last connection time can be set to be visible to everyone, your contacts, your contacts except some, or no one.
Quietly leave groups
Another novelty that we were already aware of -and that, in addition, some beta-testers have already been activated- is related to the groups and the message that appears when a member leaves the group. In the future a notice that someone has left the group will no longer be displayed. At least not for everyone, admins will still see them.
Of course, the output will not be entirely silent. Instead, WhatsApp groups will have a menu called Previous participants, where any member of the group can see the list of people who have left the group in the last two months. This feature should reach everyone during the month of August.
No screenshots on ephemeral photos
The latest novelty is the one that has surprised us the most, since we had no evidence that it was on the way. WhatsApp will prevent you from taking screenshots of ephemeral photos and videosthose that are deleted as soon as they are seen once by the sender (although there are tricks to see them more times).
Until now these types of ephemeral messages were not very protected, beyond being removed from the chat after opening. WhatsApp has stated that it is still testing this novelty for which we will no longer be able to take screenshots of this type of message, and we should have it on our mobiles “soon”.
Via | TheVerge
