WhatsApp’s 5 privacy features every user must know

WhatsApp offers some useful privacy features like group invitation and fingerprint lock. Here’s five of them every user must know.

WhatsApp’s five privacy features (Pixabay)

WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps with over 400 million users in India itself. Even though WhatsApp has been introducing quite a variety of features it still continues to be one of easiest and most efficient to use.

Apart from introducing a bunch of features to enhance the look and efficiency, Facebook-owned WhatsApp has also paid fair attention to the privacy of users.

Take a look at five privacy features of WhatsApp

Choose who can add you to WhatsApp groups

WhatsApp's group privacy feature lets users decide who they want to give access to add them in a group. With this invitation system, users have an option of giving access to "Everyone", "My Contacts", and "Nobody".

Enable biometric lock

This feature will enable an extra layer of security for WhatsApp users and will ensure that nobody other than the user is able to read the messages. The fingerprint ID is for Android users, while Touch ID and Face ID is for iOS users. In order to enable this feature, the user will have to follow these steps for Android:

· Open WhatsApp

· Go to settings

· Account

· Privacy

· Enable Fingerprint lock

For iOS users:

· Open WhatsApp

· Go to settings

· Account

· Privacy

· Screen Lock

· Enable Touch ID or Face ID

Choose who cannot see your profile picture and status

Users can choose who can or cannot see their profile picture, their status and their status story. If the user does not want the profile picture to be public and only wants the same to be available for a limited number of people, then he or she can choose from, three options -- "Everyone", "My Contacts" and "Nobody". The same is applicable to status.

In order to use the feature one has to follow these steps:

· Open WhatsApp

· Go to Settings

· Account

· Privacy

· Profile Photo

· Choose one of the options that are available

In order to restrict people from viewing your status story, which stays on the profile for a period of 24 hours, iOS users can follow these steps:

· Open WhatsApp

· Go to Status tab

· On top left, tap on Privacy tab

· Choose from three options namely: My contact, My Contacts Except…., Only Share With….

Report, block users

If the user does not want to receive messages or calls over WhatsApp from another user, he/she can block or block and report them. If the contact name of the said user is not saved in the phonebook, then the option to block will appear in the chat window itself. In case the number of the user is saved, then Android users have to follow these steps:

· Open WhatsApp

· Choose the name of the person that needs to be blocked

· In the chat window, click on three dots in top right corner

· Click on 'More', choose block from the drop down menu

For iOS users:

· Open WhatsApp

· Choose the name of the person that needs to be blocked

· Tap on the Top Bar

· Second last option on the page is block

Disable 'read message' feature

While WhatsApp's blue feature is a boon for some it is certainly not the best idea for people who do not want to let the sender know whether or not they have seen the message. In order to disable the 'blue ticks' or read message feature, all that the user has to do is:

· Open WhatsApp

· Go to Settings

· Account

· Privacy

· Switch off read receipts