WhatsApp has announced that it is going to make a major change for its oldest privacy settings, allowing for better flexibility for the user when it comes to sharing their availability and other personal information with other WhatsApp users.
This news feature is going to be available on both Android and iOS and will let users of the platform hide their last seen status from a specific contact and not just generically. This also means that if you do not wish for the person to see this information, you will be able to add them to a new restricted list.
In case you did not know, earlier, users could choose from three options, namely Everyone, Nobody and My Contacts for the privacy settings in order to make changes to the last seen information.
What Does This New WhatsApp Feature Bring
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Now, this feature brings with it a new My Contacts Except option to disable this information for a specific person or user, which, as per WABetaInfo will apply to other info such as profile pictures and the general about information.
This will work both ways, meaning if you wish to hide your last seen from someone, you will also be unable to see their last seen status. As of now, this new privacy feature is under development and will come soon to beta testers.
In other WhatsApp related news, it recently announced the migration of chats between iPhone and Android and posted it a few days ago on its official Twitter account, a moment Telegram took advantage of to poke fun at on the social network itself.
What Else is WhatsApp Doing?
Telegram reminded the users of the proprietary chat service from Facebook that its platform has implemented an automatic backup of all chats in the cloud and that its users can switch from iOS to Android and vice versa without the need for migration.
While Telegram is known for being more usable and feature-rich than WhatsApp, especially in matters of functionality, the instant messaging app owned by Facebook is still the most used in the world with more than two billion monthly active users.
For those wondering, Telegram debuted in 2013 and since its launch, it has gone on to become WhatsApp’s biggest rival. However, while it is not a big competitor in terms of user count; the truth is that Telegram far exceeds WhatsApp in terms of functionality, security and privacy; as well as the frequency of updates.
