If you use WhatsApp regularly, chances are you've spotted the login status next to the name of some of your contacts.
Though WhatsApp makes your online status visible to everyone by default, you can easily change it.
In fact, because WhatsApp has been known in the past for a variety of security and privacy issues, you may want to minimize your online footprint in the app.
Quick tip: If you are looking for a messaging app that doesn't reveal your online status at all, consider trying Signal. For a direct comparison of Signal and WhatsApp, refer to our guide on these two apps.
WhatsApp online status allows users to see the last time their contacts were active on the platform and whether they are currently using the app.
When someone is online, it doesn't necessarily mean they've seen your message — it simply means they're currently using the app.
Last Seen refers to the last time the person used WhatsApp and also doesn't mean that they have seen your most recent message. The only way to tell if someone has seen your message is the blue check marks beside the message.
If you don't want your WhatsApp contacts to know your Last Seen or online status, you can easily hide your status from everyone, make it available to only your contacts, or exclude certain contacts from seeing it through the app's settings.
Note: When you hide your own WhatsApp online status, you also can't view other people's statuses, though it's a more polite alternative to blocking someone outright.
The steps to hide your Last Seen or online status on WhatsApp are simple:
1. Start the WhatsApp app on your phone and go to Settings.
2. On the Privacy page, open Last Seen & Online.
3. Choose how you want to hide your Last Seen status.
Here's the full guide on how to hide your online status on WhatsApp:
How to hide WhatsApp online status1. Start WhatsApp and go to Settings.
2. On the Settings page, tap Privacy.
3. Tap Last Seen & Online to change your online status.
On the Privacy page, tap Last Seen & Online to control whether other people can see your online status. Dave Johnson/Insider4.
Everyone is probably already selected by default. Choose My Contacts, My Contacts Except, or Nobody to fine-tune who can see your status.
My Contacts and Nobody is fairly self-explanatory; choose one of these to allow only your contacts or no one at all to see your online status. You can also choose My Contacts Except and select people who you don't want to see your "Last Seen" status.
When you're finished, tap Done in the top right corner on iPhone or the check mark in the bottom right corner on Android.
For a full overview of your options here, check out our guide to changing privacy settings in WhatsApp.
Note: While hiding your Last Seen means people won't be able to see when you were last online, it will still show them when you're currently online. To tweak that setting, adjust the Who Can See When I'm Online option on the same page as Last Seen & Online.
Dave Johnson
Freelance Writer
Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft.
As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider.
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WhatsApp is a demanding mistress. You can't not have it these days, given that it's largely how everyone communicates. And if you have it, it sometimes chimes so much you just want it to shut the hell up. Well, there are a few options to do that.
The simplest thing of course would be to just put your phone on silent mode. But maybe WhatsApp is the only thing bothering you, and you want to be alerted to your calls and emails. That could be a problem then.
But unlike other social media apps, WhatsApp doesn't have a 'Go Offline' or 'Busy' setting.
You're either online or you're not. Luckily, there are some alternatives to the binary choice of deleting the app or the incessant chiming driving you insane.
The easiest way to tune out is to turn off your 'Read Notifications' from the Account tab of your WhatsApp settings menu. This stops people from receiving the blue tick that tells them when you've opened the app and seen a new message. Of course, this works best if you also turn off your 'Last Seen' setting from the same location. It's the simplest way to tell your friends you need some time to yourself. For those that can't take the hint, the next few ideas should work.
This one is fairly simple, just go the 'Apps' section of your phone settings menu, select WhatsApp, and disable all notifications for it. Turn off the vibration and pop-up notifications, and select the 'None' ringtone. Now you won't feel compelled to check your phone every few seconds.
At least, so long as your display remains off and you don't look at the blip on your app icon.
Once you've turned off your phone notifications, you're going to also want to turn off the notification LED that blinks when you get a message. To do that, go into your WhatsApp settings, enter the 'Notifications tab, and turn the light off. Presto, you are now officially dead to all its conversations.
Additionally, you can also remove the app icon from your Home screen. That way, with the notifications for the app turned off, there's no way to know what messages you've received until you manually open the app from the app drawer.
Or maybe that's not enough, maybe you don't want other people to know you're just ignoring your messages. To do that, you can just turn off your mobile data for WhatsApp. Go into the 'Apps' tab of your settings, and toggle on the 'Disable Wi-Fi' and 'Disable Data Usage' options.
Alternatively, you can just force stop the app until you open it up again later. The problem here is people might just call you if they think you're not receiving their messages.
Happy disconnect!
Time to read the article 3 minutes.
The information is up to date! The material was checked on 12/16/2022.
The WhatsApp smartphone app automatically sets privacy settings that you can easily change. There are situations when you need to make sure that you are not seen on Whatsapp or hide connections. That is why many users are interested in the question of how to become invisible in the application and we have found the answer to it.
The program allows you to hide the last visit time, profile photo and status from prying eyes. By learning how to hide a contact from other users, you can log into the application regularly, but no one will know the date of your visit.
To do this, go to the application settings, select the line " Account " or " Account " (depending on the operating system of your smartphone) and find the section " Privacy ".
We will tell you that the official website does not provide information on how to make it invisible, that is, hide the connection status. After all, the application simply does not have such a function. All your friends will see that you are online. But we will tell you a secret :-) how to be invisible, communicate with your loved one, parents, friends, but ignore unpleasant personalities:
We will make you happy or upset, but wiretapping is possible :-) . But there is one important point! In order to spy on a person, you need to install a special spy program on his smartphone. Remotely, no one can read your messages - the developers have reliably protected personal data and correspondence from possible hacking, so don't worry :-) .
Whatsapp spy is a paid program. There are currently two types: mSpy and FlexiSPY. With the help of these applications, remote monitoring of smartphones is carried out. Remember that these programs were created for good purposes, for example:
Read how to bypass WhatsApp blocking at the source.
WhatsApp Spy is installed on a mobile phone that needs to be monitored (you will have to borrow someone else's smartphone for a while).
The program will track all phone activity and transfer it to a personal account. You can even follow the conversation in real time.
Need to detail? It is not hard! Read and follow the instructions on the link.
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05/17/2018
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Whatsapp: How to enable stealth mode and hide location
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Follow our instructions and no one will know where you are or when you last accessed WhatsApp.
Do you want to hide from annoying contacts and pretend that you are offline? Then turn off the visibility of the time of the last visit to WhatsApp. Even better, if you hide your geolocation, then you and your data will definitely remain private.
If you don't want people in your contact list to see when you were last online, simply turn off Time to visit on your smartphone. Here's how to do it.
An even more effective way to protect your privacy is to send incorrect location data via WhatsApp.
Even if you have a lot of people in your WhatsApp contact list, most of the time you communicate with only a few of them. You can avoid constantly looking for people in your contact list by moving the icons of important people to the home screen of your Android smartphone.
To do this, open the menu in a chat with the corresponding person and select "More | Add icon to screen.