How to change last seen settings on whatsapp


How to Hide Your 'Last Seen' Status in WhatsApp

For a long time now, WhatsApp has included a feature that shows when a user was last online or last active on the messaging platform, which can be either helpful or a hindrance, depending on your personal or business situation.


As regular WhatsApp users will know, the "Last Seen" status of a contact sits atop the conversation thread, informing you when that contact last opened the app and was active on the platform. But if you don't want people to know when you were last active, WhatsApp includes a setting to hide your Last Seen status or limit its visibility to certain users.

You can set it so that your Last Seen status can be seen by everyone, no-one, or only your contacts. Just bear in mind that if your Last Seen is hidden from another person, you won't be able to see their Last Seen either. Here's how it works.

  1. Open the WhatsApp app on your iPhone.
  2. Tap the Settings icon in the bottom-right.
  3. Tap Account.
  4. Tap Privacy.

  5. Tap Last Seen.
  6. Tap to select Everyone, My Contacts, or Nobody.

WhatsApp is currently working on giving users the option to adjust the visibility of their Last Seen status on a contact-by-contact basis, according to a September 2021 report, although the option has yet to be rolled out as of writing.

At the end of 2021, WhatsApp also made a privacy change to prevent people on its messaging platform from viewing the Last Seen status of users whom they have never chatted with, however people and businesses a user knows or has previously messaged are not affected by the change.

Tag: WhatsApp

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How to Hide Your Last Seen Status on WhatsApp and Why You Should

Keep your doings a little more private

WhatsApp is pretty straightforward, but certain parts about how it works can be confusing (especially if you’re new to the platform), including just how the Last Seen status operates.  

Since WhatsApp became a part of Meta, it has added more features similar to those you might have seen on Facebook Messenger. In this article, we’ll look at the Last Seen status that WhatsApp shows to your contacts, as well as other users on the platform, and how to hide this information from strangers. 

Table of Contents

    What Last Seen Status Means

    WhatsApp’s Last Seen status refers to when the user was last active on the app. This includes the last time a user replied to someone, as well as the last time they had the app opened on their device. When you open a chat with another user on WhatsApp, you can find their Last Seen status next to their profile picture at the top of the screen. If someone hasn’t replied to your messages in a while, you can check their Last Seen status to see if they’ve been avoiding your messages on purpose or if they haven’t been online for that long. 

    Don’t confuse the Last Seen feature with Read Receipts (blue ticks next to the message when the recipient reads it) and Online status (shows when the user is online and has the WhatsApp app open in the foreground on their device).  

    While Last Seen isn’t a new feature on WhatsApp, it recently received an update. Previously, you were able to hide your Last Seen information from the WhatsApp users who aren’t in your contact list or from everyone. With the update, you also can hide your Last Seen status from specific people. Effectively, it’s like blocking particular contacts from viewing your Last Seen info. 

    Note: If you don’t share your Last Seen status, you won’t be able to see the Last Seen status of other users.

    How to Hide Your Last Seen Status on WhatsApp

    The option to hide your Last Seen status is available for Android and iOS users. If you don’t want certain people to be aware of your online presence on the app, you can control who can see your Last Seen info in WhatsApp’s privacy settings. 

    Hide Your Last Seen Status on Android

    If you’re an Android user, follow the steps below to hide your Last Seen status on WhatsApp using the mobile app.  

    1. Open WhatsApp on your smartphone.
    2. In the upper-right corner of the screen, select the three vertical dots icon to open the menu. 
    1. On the drop-down menu, select Settings.
    1. In the Settings menu, select Account
    1. Select Privacy.
    1. Finally, in the Privacy settings, select Last seen.
    1. Select one of the options from the Last seen window, then select Done at the bottom of the screen to confirm. These options include: 
    • Everyone: Allow anyone to see your Last Seen status.
    • My contacts: Allow only people on your contact list to see your Last Seen status.
    • My contacts except: Manually select contacts that won’t be able to view your Last Seen status.  
    • Nobody. Hide your Last Seen info from everyone, meaning you also won’t be able to see anyone else’s Last Seen status. 

    If you change your mind and want to restore your Last Seen status visibility, you return to the Last Seen section of the privacy settings at any time. 

    Hide Your Last Seen Status on iPhone 

    The steps for hiding your Last Seen status on Apple devices are similar. However, the app’s interface is a little different. If you’re an iOS user and need help navigating through WhatsApp’s privacy settings to hide your Last Seen info, follow the steps below.

    1. Open WhatsApp on your phone.
    2. Select Settings at the bottom-right corner of the screen.
    1. Then follow the path Account > Privacy > Last Seen
    1. This opens a page with the options of who can see your Last Seen status: everyone, my contacts, and nobody. On iPhone, the option to hide your Last Seen status from specific contacts isn’t available yet as it’s still in testing. WhatsApp will automatically save the option that you select. 

    Note: You can’t access your privacy settings on WhatsApp on the web, which means you can’t change them to hide your Last Seen status from your computer. 

    Why You Should Hide Your Last Seen Status on WhatsApp

    Hiding your Last Seen status or leaving it for everyone to see is a question of how private you want to keep your WhatsApp account. WhatsApp used to set your Last Seen status visibility to Everyone by default, meaning every user on the platform could access this information. This also allowed third-party apps to exploit this feature and track certain users through WhatsApp. 

    After the latest security update, WhatsApp users who aren’t on your contact list and whom you haven’t exchanged a single message with can’t see when you’ve last been online (or whether you’re online right now). Since an app isn’t a contact, this update prevents third-party apps from accessing your Last Seen or Online status information. 

    You can make use of this new update even if you’re not at all concerned about other people tracking your online presence on WhatsApp. On the contrary, you might want your friends or loved ones to know when you were last seen online. In that case, you can set your Last Seen status to My Contacts Except and only leave the people that you trust unselected.

    Make Your WhatsApp More Private

    Last Seen is a common feature in many other social media platforms and messengers (like Viber or Telegram). However, on most of them, you can either keep this feature enabled or disable it altogether. The ability to hide your Last Seen status from certain users is an excellent addition to WhatsApp privacy features that can help you make your WhatsApp account more private. 

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    Anya is a freelance technology writer. Originally from Russia, she is currently a full-time Remote Worker and Digital Nomad. With a background in Journalism, Language Studies, and Technical Translation, Anya couldn't imagine her life and work without using modern technology on a daily basis. Always looking out for new ways to make her life and location-independent lifestyle easier, she hopes to share her experiences as a tech- and internet-addict through her writing. Read Anya's Full Bio

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    How to hide visiting time on WhatsApp: detailed instructions for Android and iOS

    Contents

    • 1 How to hide visiting time on WhatsApp in the program settings in WhatsApp settings on Android
  • 1. 2 On an iOS phone
    • 1.2.1 Video: how to hide visiting time in WhatsApp on iPhone
  • 2 or multiple contacts
    • 2.1 On Android
    • 2.2 On iPhone
  • In the factory settings of WhatsApp, the display of the time and date of the last visit is enabled for all users of the service. However, users have the right to disable this time when there is such a need: if, for example, you do not want someone to follow you. How to do it on different mobile platforms? What methods exist?

    How to hide visiting time in WhatsApp in the program settings

    Showing the time of the last visit is disabled free of charge in the regular settings of the messenger.

    However, in this case, you lose the right to see the time of visiting other users of the service.

    Another important point is that by hiding the time, you will not turn off the display of the statuses "Online" and "Printing".

    On an Android smartphone

    Where to go and what to change to turn off the time in the messenger on Android:

    1. Launch the utility - immediately tap on the three dots in the upper right corner. In the white menu, click on "Settings".
    In the messenger menu, tap on "Settings"

    Expand the first block with "Account" parameters.

    Click on the first line "Account"

    Go to the section to configure privacy.

    Go to the "Privacy" block

    Click on the parameter "Visiting time".

    Expand the "Time of visit" item to change the default value

    In the new small box, highlight the desired value: "My contacts" or "No one". In the first case, the time and date of your last visit will be visible to people from your phone book. In the second, the information will not be shown to any user.

    Set either "My contacts" or "No one"
    Video: remove the last visit time in the WhatsApp settings on Android

    On an iOS phone

    The WhatsApp interface for Android and iOS is different, so for Apple phones will have a separate instruction:

    1. Go to the last tab "Settings" on the bottom panel with section names. Expand the item for account settings.
    Go to the "Account" section

    Open the first menu "Privacy".

    Click on the first item "Privacy"

    Tap on the line "Visiting time".

    Expand the Visit time parameter

    Check the box to the right of My Contacts or Nobody.

    Click on the third value "Nobody"

    In the "Privacy" menu, you can at the same time deactivate read reports - the interlocutors will not see that you have read their message.

    You can optionally turn off read receipts so users don't know if you've read their messages or not
    Video: how to hide visiting time in WhatsApp on iPhone

    Another way to turn off the time is to block one or more contacts

    If you are basically not going to communicate with a person and do not want him to follow your visits " Vastapa", add it to the black list. This method disables the display of time pointwise - for certain users of the service. In this case, you will see information from other users, but you will not be able to contact the contact that you have blocked through this messenger until you remove it from the black list.

    The user will not receive any notification that you have blocked them. He will be able to guess about the bath only by indirect signs.

    A blocked contact does not have the right to know when you last logged into WhatsApp

    On Android

    How to ban a contact in the messenger on Android:

    1. In the same "Privacy" section in the application settings, tap on the line " Blocked".
    Go to the "Blocked" section

    The list may already show some users that you have previously blacklisted. Click on the profile with a plus at the top right. Select the contact you want to block from the list.

    Click on the plus at the top to add a contact from the address book to the blacklist

    Or, directly in the dialogue with the user, tap on the icon with three dots at the top right and in the menu give the command "Block".

    You can ban a person directly from the chat menu

    On iPhone

    How to add a person to the black list on iOS:

    1. Go to the "Privacy" block in the settings (in the "Account" section). Open the currently empty "Blocked" list.
    Go to the section with blocked users in the "Privacy" section

    Click on the "Add new" link.

    Tap on "Add new" and find the desired contact in the list

    In the list of your contacts, find and select the person to whom you do not want to show the time of your last visit. If the person is not in your address book on your phone, tap on the phone number in the correspondence with the contact and on the next page click on "Block".

    Go to the person's profile in WhatsApp and click on the "Block contact" option there. Its disadvantage is that you will not see the time of visits of your contacts. If you want to disable the display of your visit time for specific contacts, you will have to block them. You will not be able to send messages and call them while they are on your black list.

    • Author: Ekaterina Vasilyeva