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How to take off last seen 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 Online Status on WhatsApp

  • You can hide online status on WhatsApp — known as Last Seen — in your Privacy settings.  
  • Choose whether only your contacts or nobody should see your Last Seen status.
  • You can also choose to exclude certain people from seeing your Last Seen status.

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.

WhatsApp online status

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.

The steps to hide your Last Seen or online status on Whatsapp are simple:

1. Open WhatsApp on your phone and head to the settings.

2. Open the account settings, and then head to the privacy settings.

3. Go to the Last Seen settings.

4. Tap either My Contacts, My Contacts Except, or Nobody to 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 status 

1. Open WhatsApp on your iPhone or Android.

2. Go to your WhatsApp settings.

  • On iPhone, tap Settings – the gear icon – in the bottom right corner.
Tap the gear icon to access WhatsApp's settings on iPhone. Stefan Ionescu
  • On Android, tap the More icon – the three vertical dots – in the top right corner, and then select Settings in the menu.
Tap the three vertical dots to access WhatsApp's settings on Android. Stefan Ionescu

3. In Settings, tap Account.

4. On the Account page, tap Privacy.

5. Tap Last Seen to change your online status.

Tap "Last Seen." Stefan Ionescu

6. You have two options to hide your online or Last Seen status — you can choose for only My Contacts to see your status or for Nobody to see your status.

You can also choose My Contacts Except and select people from your contacts list who you don't want to see your "Last Seen" status. Then, tap Done in the top right corner on iPhone or the check mark in the bottom right corner on Android.

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.

7. Once you've made a selection, your online or Last Seen status will be visible to just your contacts, no one at all, or the contacts you didn't exclude, depending on your selection.

Meira Gebel

Meira Gebel is a freelance reporter based in Portland, Oregon. She writes about business, culture, and technology for Insider. Her work has been featured in Digital Trends, Willamette Week, USA Today, and more. She is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School and San Francisco State University.  Feel free to reach out to her on Twitter, where she can be found most of the time, @MeiraGebel.

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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 blacklist. 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 blacklist.

    • Author: Ekaterina Vasilyeva