WhatsApp has been working on new privacy features since last year. The ability to hide your profile photo, last seen, and About info from specific people has been in beta for quite a while, but it is finally rolling out to all users across the globe on iPhone and Android devices.
The announcement comes from WhatsApp’s official social media accounts.
🔒 To further protect your privacy online, we’re rolling out new options to your privacy control settings 🔒
Now you can select who from your contact list can see your Profile Photo, About, and Last Seen status. For more information follow this link: https://t.co/UGMCx2n70h
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) June 15, 2022
Until now, WhatsApp had four privacy options to let you hide from everyone, your contacts only, your contacts except a few people, or no one. This was also available for Status privacy. But now the new option will let you hide your last seen, profile photo, and About info from only specific people in your contact list.
It is worth mentioning that you won’t be able to see other people’s last seen if you hide your own, just like read receipts (blue ticks). However, the latter still works in group chats.
You can find new the privacy setting if you go through Settings > Account > Privacy menu on iPhones and Androids.
Some new features for group calls on @WhatsApp: You can now mute or message specific people on a call (great if someone forgets to mute themselves!), and we've added a helpful indicator so you can more easily see when more people join large calls. pic.twitter.com/fxAUCAzrsy
— Will Cathcart (@wcathcart) June 16, 2022
Other than that, WhatsApp has also added the ability to mute specific people in a group call with the new update. You will also be able to message specific people directly through the call.