What you need to know
- WhatsApp is rolling its new profile privacy features out to beta testers.
- People will be able to control who can see various aspects of their profile.
Instant messaging platform WhatsApp is rolling a new profile privacy feature out to users who are part of its TestFlight beta program, giving them more control over who can see their information.
According to WABetaInfo, the privacy feature — previously outed but not yet evailable — is now being made available to people who are part of the WhatsApp TestFlight. But even then, it isn't available to all.
With the new feature live, people will have more granular control over who can see various aspects of their profile including when they were "last seen," as well as their profile photo and "about" section. Users will be able to select 'Everyone,' 'My Contacts,' 'My Contacts Except...,' and 'Nobody.' But there are some things to note in the new feature's current implementation, notes the report.
- People that have an outdated version of WhatsApp or they don't have the feature enabled still cannot see your information if you exclude them.
- When you exclude some contacts from seeing your last seen, you won't be able to see their last seen as well, so what happens when you set your privacy settings for last seen to "Nobody".
- There might be possible to see the last seen of excluded contacts, but it's a bug.
While it's obviously positive news that this important privacy change is now in the hands of beta testers, we still don't know when it will be made available to the rest of us. WhatsApp is one of the best iPhone apps at what it does, and more privacy options are always very welcome indeed.
