Messaging service WhatsApp will soon introduce some new features. Users can leave chat groups without others seeing them and delete messages for long periods of time. You can also specify who can or cannot verify whether you’re currently online, and contacts can no longer take screenshots or record one-time messages that delete themselves. While the fix will roll out exactly, the part of Facebook’s parent meta is still unknown.
wverSource: Sky News
The new features are WhatsApp’s response to allegations of the US chat service’s lack of privacy. WhatsApp and extension owner Meta have been criticized for some time now for their (lack of) policy to protect users’ privacy.
Currently, all group members are notified when a member leaves the group. The messaging service says that from now on, only administrators will be notified when someone unsubscribes.
You can already specify with Whatsapp not to share your ‘last seen’ status, but it applies to all your contacts. After introducing new features, users can specify whether or not to share their status with specific contacts. It’s also been possible for some time to disable read receipts so contacts can’t see if you’ve seen a message. The downside is that you can’t see if your contact has already read your message.
Delete the message after two days
It will take more time to delete a message. This is now possible an hour after posting a message, but deleting a message will take more than two days in the future.
The news service had already issued a warning about self-destructing messages once. Meta discovered that recipients can still quickly take a screenshot or recording. That is no longer possible.
According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the changes are to ensure that they are “as secure as a normal conversation between two people”. The new features will be launched with a global ad campaign starting in the UK and India.
