WhatsApp is trying out a new chat feature designed to enhance privacy.
Do you have that one friend in your group chat who can't keep a secret? WhatsApp is introducing a solution with "advanced chat privacy," a new feature currently in testing that enables you to prevent others from exporting chats or automatically saving photos and media you send them without your permission.
WABetaInfo reported on Monday that this privacy feature toggle was discovered in the latest beta version of the app for Android and iOS over the weekend. The purpose of “advanced chat privacy,” applicable to both individual and group chats, is to provide users with greater control over the information they share, thereby minimizing the chance of accidental leaks, unauthorized data sharing, and archiving messages outside of the chat without user consent.
When the "advanced chat privacy" feature is activated, all participants in both group and individual chats will be notified. This setting will automatically prevent chat members from exporting the entire chat history to other networks and from automatically saving media to their device galleries, particularly when the chat content or media is sensitive. Additionally, this feature disables Meta AI, which interacts within chats by answering questions and generating images. However, "advanced chat privacy" must be managed on a per-chat basis, meaning it won't be universally applied through WhatsApp’s general settings. Users need to access the settings from the specific chat they wish to modify.
While "advanced chat privacy" is a positive advancement for enhancing user privacy on WhatsApp, participants in those chats can still circumvent it by taking screenshots of the conversations or screen-recording shared videos, as WhatsApp chose not to implement screenshot detection. Screenshots can be captured on both mobile devices and desktop via WhatsApp Web, so it’s advisable to be cautious about who you include in your chats and the information you share with them.
WhatsApp has not announced when it will officially roll out “advanced chat privacy,” as it is still undergoing beta testing. We will inform you when the feature is fully launched.
Cristina Alexander is a gaming and mobile writer at Digital Trends. She provides comprehensive coverage of gaming industry topics.
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WhatsApp is trying out a new chat feature designed to enhance privacy.
WhatsApp is experimenting with enhanced chat privacy features to stop users from exporting conversations that contain sensitive data.