WHATSAPP INTRODUCES NEW FEATURES FOR ENHANCED PROTECTION AND CONTROL

Social Networking platform, WhatsApp, is introducing new protection features into the app to ensure safety and control over messages on WhatsApp.

This decision comes as part of WhatsApp’s commitment to promoting privacy in the use of its app. In recent years, the app has been tuned with different security features to ensure secure conversations. Some of these include but are not limited to end-to-end encryption for protected messaging, disappearing messages, and two-step authentication.

“At WhatsApp, Privacy is in our DNA, and we will never stop building new ways to protect your personal conversations. We believe messaging and calling should always be as private and secure as having face-to-face conversations. Kind of like if two people were talking and no one else was around.”, a WhatsApp blog post says.

The platform is adding three new features for added protection and control in conversations: leave groups silently, choose who can see when you’re online, and screenshot blocking for view once messages.

First, WhatsApp will allow participants to leave group chats without notifying everybody in the group. The admin, instead, is notified of the participant’s departure. Also, the app will give users the option to choose who can see them when they are online. This is based on the recognition that some users “want to keep [their] online presence private.”

Finally, the apps will make it possible to disallow other participants or contacts from taking screenshots on media that is sent as “view once”. These features will be set for rollout in August with the latter feature in experiments, the blog post clarifies. WhatsApp will continue to give its users an insight into these new features soon.