WhatsApp Beta for iOS Lets You Hide Your “Last Seen” from Certain Contacts

Do you want to pretend you haven’t been online recently? And if so, should your presence be hidden from certain persons only? Your boss, your ex, your joke-loving friends? Rejoice: WhatsApp tests the feature that enables you to hide your “Last Seen” data from certain contacts.

So far, WhatsApp had this feature in a much simpler style. The “Last seen” line under your username in the chat window could expose your last presence to everyone, your contacts, or no one. The updated version adds one more option: “My Contact Except…” Except who? You can choose it by tapping this option and then selecting those from your contacts who aren’t allowed to track your online presence.

This new option is available throughout your privacy section. Similarly, you can hide from certain contacts your profile details and the profile photo. All these sections are managed separately. So, you can hide “Last Seen” from one group of contacts and your profile picture from another. For example, your annoying boss will not see your last time online, and no will see your happy vacation photo you make your profile one for a while, except for a small circle of friends who accompanied you in this secret ride.

The new feature first appeared in WhatsApp Beta 22.9.0.70 for Android. The popular site WABetaInfo found it in April 2022 and explored how it works. For it to function, it’s enough that you have the updated version. Your contacts excluded from the default whitelist will not see your last time online regardless of the version they use. It’s not clear yet when this feature will make it to the stable release versions.

Have you already updated to this beta version to enhance your privacy? If so, how did it function? And what you think about it in general? Share your impressions with us in the comments if you please!