WhatsApp has finally started rolling out the most wanted privacy option to beta testers. It is to restrict select contacts from viewing your “last seen”, your “profile photo” and your “about” section.
It was reported earlier as the developers were working on the option of “My contacts except…” in the three of the privacy features. After staying in the due development process, the feature has now finally been rolled out to beta testers
In a recent beta release – v2.21.23.14, the new option of “My contacts except…” has been added to three privacy features – Last seen, Profile photo, and About. It was a much-needed option that users would have wanted.
After the new option is added, the new list of options is — everyone, my contacts, my contacts except…, and nobody.
For years, WhatsApp has offered a couple of privacy settings which include Last Seen, Profile Photo, About, and Status. Only the Status had the option “My contacts except…” that was added later. Now the option has been added into other privacy features as well, so you can choose from contacts flexibly on those features too.
It’s worth noting here that the Status feature still lacks the option of “Everyone” which doesn’t matter as hardly anybody would want to share their status to non-contacts.
“If you don’t share your Last Seen, you won’t be able to see other people’s Last Seen”
As we checked, the option indeed works as intended for a user as the user’s Last Seen won’t show up to the selected contacts. However, as you see in the note above, it works vice-versa like we have seen it with the Status. So if you choose contacts to restrict them from viewing your Last Seen, you shouldn’t be seeing their Last seen either. Well, it seems to be broken right now and you can see their Last seen in reverse even you are blocking them to see yours. When set at “Nobody”, it works fine like before.
Also, this reverse action is only applicable to the “Last Seen” feature. In other features – Profile photo, and About, the option only works one way and it won’t block you to the selected contacts until they block you themselves. In simple words, each user will need to set its own privacy for these two features.
How to check if you have the option in your WhatsApp build?
Well, it’s currently limited only to beta testers. If you had joined the beta program of the application, you would be able to see an update in the Play store, if you hadn’t updated already. Another thing, the rollout process is phase-based, so you may not have the option in your beta build yet and may get it in future builds.
To verify, just go to Settings > Account > Privacy. Then select a privacy feature – last seen, profile photo, or about. If should see the new option “My contacts except…” right among the three existing options.
