WhatsApp's New Privacy Features Are Here: Exit Chats 'Silently', Prevent Screenshots And More

WhatsApp is rolling out new privacy features that would let users exit group chats without notifying everyone, control who can see when they are online and prevent screenshots on view once messages.

Last week, WABetaInfo mentioned that it would be soon possible for users on the platform to hide who can see their online status using two new options. Image: Getty

Meta-owned WhatsApp is now adding new privacy features that would allow users to exit group chats without notifying everyone, control who can see when they (users) are online and prevent screenshots on view once messages, company CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday.

"New privacy features coming to WhatsApp: exit group chats without notifying everyone, control who can see when you're online, and prevent screenshots on view once messages. We'll keep building new ways to protect your messages and keep them as private and secure as face-to-face conversations," Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page.

Earlier last week, WABetaInfo, a beta WhatsApp tracker mentioned that it would be soon possible for users on the platform to hide who can see their online status using two new options: Everyone and Same as Last Seen.

Meanwhile, the Meta-owned messaging platform is also extending the time limit to delete sent messages on the platform. According to the world's most popular messaging platform, the time limit to delete sent messages in a group chat or private chat has now been increased to a little more than two days. The company made the announcement on Twitter on Tuesday.

This comes amid reports of Apple bringing the option to “unsend” messages for the first time with iOS 16 beta on iMessage.

It should be noted that while Meta-owned WhatsApp is extending the time limit for users to delete a sent message, but Apple, on the other hand, is doing exactly the opposite with iMessage. Apple, in the first beta versions of iOS 16, had offered users 15 minutes time limit to unsend a message. However, now, in the latest beta, this limit has been cut to only two minutes.

Previously, the time limit to unsend or delete a message on WhatsApp was limited to 68 minutes, but that time limit is being extended now.