On Tuesday, WhatsApp unveiled a number of new privacy features, among them the option for users to examine their messages secretly.
Soon, users will be able to restrict who may see when they are available, stop others from screenshotting certain messages, and leave groups without updating the entire channel.
WhatsApp is owned by Facebook parent company Meta and has more than 2 billion users worldwide.
“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,” Zuckerberg wrote.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed the business would “keep building innovative ways to protect your messages and keep them as private and secure as face-to-face talks” when announcing the changes on Facebook and Instagram.
End-to-end encryption, which allows only the sender and recipient of a message to access its contents, is something WhatsApp has long bragged about using.
Additionally, it already enables users to send messages that vanish after predetermined amounts of time, just like other private messaging services.
WhatsApp was, however, closely examined last year after changing its terms of service.
At the time, a portion of WhatsApp’s privacy policy that described what was shared with parent company Facebook, which has a poor reputation when it comes to securing user data, sparked worries from many users.
Some users flocked to Signal, another well-liked encrypted texting network, as a result of the upgrade.
Facebook made an effort to clear up any misunderstandings about the policy by asserting that its data-sharing procedures were nothing new and had no “effect on how users privately engage with friends or family.”
