WhatsApp is an industry leader among end-to-end encrypted messaging services, and has devoted efforts to product innovation launching a number of noteworthy Privacy and Safety features for users in 2022. WhatsApp’s built in layers of protection gives users privacy and control over their conversations while messaging and safeguarding their digital well-being.
Here are the top 6 safety and privacy features WhatsApp launched in 2022 that ensure increased safety and security for users:
- Admin control: With the roll out of ‘Communities on WhatsApp’, admin control has been strengthened, making admins responsible for creating and managing Communities. Group admins have the ability to remove errant or problematic messages from group chats, choose which groups become part of their community or remove groups or individual members.
- Screenshot blocking for view once messages: View Once is already a trendy way to share photos or media that don’t need a permanent digital record. Screenshot blocking for View Once messages now ensures that no one can take a screenshot of the photos and videos users sent, giving them even more control over their privacy.
- Leave group silently: We love our group chats but some are not forever. WhatsApp allows users to leave a group silently without having to notify everyone. Now, instead of notifying the full group when leaving, only the admins will be notified when a user exits a group.
- Control your online presence: Knowing when our loved ones are online makes us feel closer and connected to them, but there are moments when we all wish we could check our WhatsApp privately. For the times you want to keep your online presence private on WhatsApp, you now have the ability to select who can and can’t see that you’re online.
- New Forwarding Limits: WhatsApp’s limits on forwarding messages restrict messages with a “forwarded label” to just five chats at once, and “highly-forwarded messages” to just one chat at a time. WhatsApp is one of the few messaging services to intentionally constrain sharing to prevent virality. In 2022, WhatsApp introduced new group forwarding limits, where messages that have the “forwarded label” can now only be forwarded to one group at a time.
- Code Verify: WhatsApp’s usage and popularity has not only been limited to mobile devices; WhatsApp Web has also emerged as an exciting and widely used solution amongst Indians. For an added layer of security, WhatsApp launched ‘Code Verify’ – a web browser extension that provides real-time, third-party verification that the code running someone’s WhatsApp Web has not been tampered with.
