This is how you avoid prying eyes in everyday Whatsapp.
Hiding time stamps and presence markings is easy. Jonathan Raa
Traditional text messages are slowly but surely fading into the obscurity of history. In their place, instant messaging services have arrived, through which messaging, group chats, phone calls and even video calls are possible.
In Finland, one of the most used instant messaging services is Whatsapp, whose toolkit includes a lopsided stack of clever features that allow you to connect under the radar without sharp-eyed snoopers knowing your movements.
The service keeps track of when you last opened the application. In addition, the platform displays time-stamped read receipts every time you open a message sent to you. This can cause a misunderstanding in a situation where you mistakenly read the message, but do not have time to reply to the sender.
In addition, with a clever trick, you can hide personal messages completely from the service. This adds another layer of protection in the event that an unlocked device ends up in the wrong hands.
READ ALSO: When did the recipient read your Whatsapp message? Here’s how to check
Hide the last time you were there on Whatsapp
The feature allows other Whatsapp users to see when you were last there. In addition, the tool shows if you are actively there right now.
It’s a neat feature, but privacy-conscious people may want to turn it off.
You can find the setting in the path Settings > Privacy > Last Location and Location. This way you can adjust who can see when you were last there. The user can turn off the feature completely or adjust who can see the data.
From the same place, the user can turn off the feature that tells the user that he is there right now.
Hiding this information also hides it reciprocally from the user himself. So you can no longer check when other Whatsapp users have been there.
Adjust visibility. You can decide who sees you when you’re there.
Hide Whatsapp read receipts
With the help of read receipts, the user can check when the message he sent has been read. However, it is possible to turn off read receipts from the path Settings > Privacy > Read receipts. However, read receipts are always visible in group chats.
Disabling read receipts means that the user is no longer able to view the read receipts of other users.
Hide your Whatsapp information
From the path Settings > Privacy you can choose which information about you is sent to others. In addition to presence information, you can adjust the visibility of the profile picture, status and general information, as well as the possibility to invite the account to groups.
Information hidden. The user can decide for himself what he wants to show about himself to others.
Hiding a Whatsapp conversation behind identification
If you want to hide a conversation or an entire group, go to the conversations overview. Press and hold a conversation or group until a pop-up window appears. Choose Lock the conversation.
After this, the conversation moves behind the identification to the top of the Conversation view Locked conversations under the folder.
Behind the code. It is possible to hide the entire folder of locked conversations.
To add another layer of secrecy, open Locked Chats. Press Settings from the upper right corner of the screen and select Hide locked conversations. Conversations locked in this way completely disappear from the Conversations view.
Opening locked conversations requires a code, which can be, for example, a text clip or an emoji. The code is generated when the user activates the Hide Locked Chats tool.
It is then possible to display the hidden conversations by typing the generated code in the search field at the top of the Conversations view.