How to control WhatsApp ‘Last seen’ and ‘Online’ status
WhatsApp is the world’s most popular messaging app, and its approach to privacy is one of the main reasons why.
End-to-end encryption is enabled by default, which means only the sender and the recipient (or group members) can ever see what you’ve written. This was expanded in 2021 to include backups to iCloud or Google Drive.
But another great benefit of WhatsApp is the ability for individuals to control what information they share with friends, family, and anyone who has their number. This includes when you last used the app (known as “last seen”) and whether you are online at a specific time. Both can feel intrusive at times, but they can be turned off entirely or adjusted to your liking. Here’s how.
How to Control WhatsApp Last Seen Status
WhatsApp makes it easy to choose who can see when you last used the app. An Android phone will be used for the purposes of this tutorial, but the process on iOS is almost identical:
- Open WhatsApp as usual
- Tap the three dots in the top right and select “Settings”. On iOS, Settings is a tab in the bottom-right corner
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
- Tap on “Account” and then on “Privacy”.
- Tap on Last Seen, the first option in the list
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
- From here you can select “Everyone”, “Nobody”, “My Contacts” or “My Contacts Except…” – selecting the latter takes you to a separate screen where you select those exceptions
Keep in mind, however, that whichever option you choose also applies to the people you message. You can’t prevent other people from seeing your Last Seen status, but you can still see it, for example, when you send someone a message.
How to Control WhatsApp ‘Online’ Status (Coming Soon)
In August 2022, WhatsApp’s parent company, Meta, announced that three more privacy-focused features would be added to the service.
Arguably the most important of these are similar controls for your “online” status. Contacts will see this next to your name if you’re using the app at that particular moment, but it’s possible to change this if the feature is available “this month” – the process is almost identical to “last seen”:
- Open WhatsApp
- Tap the three dots in the top right corner and choose “Settings” on Android or tap “Settings” in the bottom right corner on iOS
- Tap on “Account” and then on “Privacy”.
- You will now see a renamed “Last seen and online” option – tap on it
- Here you can choose between “Everyone” (the only setting available so far) and “As last seen”.
WhatsApp has confirmed to us that the feature works exactly as shown in the screenshot below. If you don’t want everyone to see when you’re online, it needs to be set to Last Seen.
Meta
As you can see, there are two other privacy-focused features included in the same update.
Instead of everyone in a group knowing when you’re leaving, it will be “silent”. Only the admins are notified, but this could still be a problem if you try not to find out.
WhatsApp will also prevent you from taking screenshots of messages that the sender has decided you can only “view once”. This is something you may have seen before when using banking apps.
We will update this article as new features become available.