WhatsApp Adds New Controls To Privacy And Group Calling Features

WhatsApp has updated its messaging service with a couple of new additions via the latest update. One of which is the ability to block certain individuals from seeing your profile page and photo, as well as your “last seen” status – a feature that was discovered by the folks WABetaInfo earlier in April. Meanwhile, the others are extra controls for the platform’s group calling function, which we will get into detail in a bit.

For those who missed our previous report, the new privacy-centric additions introduces additional layers to the existing features for your profile page and photo, status, and last seen information. Originally allowing you to choose between Everyone, My Contacts and Nobody, this privacy setting now lets you fine tune it further by only selecting certain individuals from your contacts list by selecting the new “My contacts except…” option.

🔒 To further protect your privacy online, we’re rolling out new options to your privacy control settings 🔒

Now you can select who from your contact list can see your Profile Photo, About, and Last Seen status. For more information follow this link: https://t.co/UGMCx2n70h

— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) June 15, 2022

As a refresher, you can find this list as well as the newly added setting under Settings > Account > Privacy on WhatsApp. Once selected, you can then manually select people from your contacts that you do not wish to see all of the information mentioned earlier. However, do keep in mind that delisting someone from seeing your last seen status will also prevent you from seeing theirs which, in a way, is a fair tradeoff.

Next up are the new controls added to the group calling feature on the platform, which was announced separately by WhatsApp head Will Cathcart via Twitter. With this new update, you can now mute certain people and also drop a private message to specific participants during an active session. Cathcart says this is very useful for instances such as directly messaging those who forgot to mute their microphone during a meeting or talk. Additionally, group call participants will also see a new off-screen banner whenever someone joins in the conversation.

Some new features for group calls on @WhatsApp: You can now mute or message specific people on a call (great if someone forgets to mute themselves!), and we've added a helpful indicator so you can more easily see when more people join large calls. pic.twitter.com/fxAUCAzrsy

— Will Cathcart (@wcathcart) June 16, 2022

These new features are available now for all WhatsApp users on both Android and iOS platforms across the globe. As usual, in order to enjoy them, make sure that you update the app to the latest version available via Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

(Source: WhatsApp [official website, Twitter] / Will Cathcart)