17 ways to make WhatsApp safer and more private

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Protect the messenger with a PIN, delete information about the last time you were online, and hide notifications from prying eyes.

1. Set up two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication greatly increases the security of your account. It will protect you if fraudsters somehow gain access to the SIM card.

Open WhatsApp and tap → Settings → Account → Two-step verification → Enable. Enter and remember the code you came up with, then enter your email address - you will need it if you need to reset your PIN. Click Finish.

Now, every time you log into your WhatsApp account, in addition to the SMS code, you will also need to enter your PIN.

2. Disable pop-up messages

When your smartphone is locked, it still shows pop-up notifications. This is very convenient, but unsafe: if you conduct confidential correspondence, anyone can spy on the contents of the messages sent and the addressee's name on an unattended gadget. And it doesn't require a fingerprint or password.

Therefore, it is better for the paranoid to turn off notifications. There are two ways to do this: in WhatsApp itself and in the smartphone settings. In the messenger, open "Settings" → "Notifications". Disable Priority Notifications in the Messages and Groups sections.

In the parameters of the smartphone, the same is done as follows: open the system "Settings" → "Applications and notifications" → WhatsApp → "Notifications". Uncheck the "Show notifications" option.

If you don't want to completely opt out of alerts, at least turn them off on the lock screen. To do this, tap "Settings" → "Lock screen" → "Advanced" → "Notifications on the lock screen". Here you can hide their content so as not to show the text of your messages to strangers, or simply turn it off.

3. Block unwanted contacts

WhatsApp has a huge number of spammers, scammers and just weird and unpleasant people. Fortunately, if you don't want to receive messages from someone, you can simply add them to the blacklist.

Open a chat with an unwanted contact and tap Menu → More → Block. Alternatively, highlight the conversation with him and click Menu → View Contact → Block.

You can view users in the black list and, if necessary, delete them from there by clicking "Menu" → "Settings" → "Account" → "Privacy" → "Blocked".

4. Hide your active time

All WhatsApp users can see the last time you went online. But you can turn off this feature so that overly annoying interlocutors do not ask questions why you are not responding to their messages.

Open “Menu” → “Settings” → “Account” → “Privacy”. Click "Was (s)". Change it from "Everyone" to "Nobody". This way no one can see when you were last online. But keep in mind that in this case, you will not be able to see which of your acquaintances went online when.

5. Hide information

Details is the caption that appears next to your name in your contact list. For newly registered users, this field contains “Hey there! I am using WhatsApp ". You can indicate there ready-made statuses, for example, "At work", "Busy" or write any quotes.

And if the message in your "Details" field is not for everyone, click "Menu" → "Settings" → "Account" → "Privacy" → "Details" and select "My contacts" or "Nobody".

6. Hide statuses

Statuses allow you to share photos, videos, text and GIFs that disappear after 24 hours. By default, they are shown to all your contacts. If you like to share gifs with cats with your friends, and they come to your boss, you risk being in an awkward situation.

Therefore, go to "Menu" → "Settings" → "Account" → "Privacy" → "Status". Select the "Contacts except" option and specify the people you don't want to annoy with your pictures. Or click "Share With" and your statuses will only be shown to those you choose.

7. Hide your photo

Perhaps you want your profile picture to be visible only to people you know. To do this, click "Menu" → "Settings" → "Account" → "Privacy" → "Profile photo" and select the "My contacts" option.

8. Hide the read receipt

When you receive and view a message from someone, a check mark appears in the chat next to the sender's reply to indicate that they have read it. This is usually convenient, but sometimes it can lead to awkward situations. For example, you forgot to write to a friend in time, and he was offended.

To avoid this, tap "Settings" → "Account" → "Privacy" and turn off the "Read receipts" function. Note, however, that in this case, you will no longer see the notification check marks. And in group chats, this feature does not work.

9. Read messages in flight mode

There is a little trick for those for whom the previous point does not work. If you don't want to turn off read notifications, but you still want to look at the received letter and still want to tell no one about it, switch your smartphone to flight mode. After that, open WhatsApp and read the message. Then close it, turn off airplane mode, and the sender will not receive a read receipt.

10. Hide conversations

If you want to hide but not delete your WhatsApp conversation, you can archive it. Press and hold the desired chat until you highlight it. Then, in the top menu, tap the "Archive" button.

Of course, any person who knows how to use WhatsApp will still find the hidden chat, if you give him time to sit in your smartphone. But still, thanks to archiving, confidential dialogues are not so conspicuous.

To view the archive of chats, scroll to the very bottom of the list of conversations and click the inscription "Archived". You can also remove conversations from there that you added by mistake.

11. Turn off showing location

WhatsApp makes it easy for you to share your location with someone you are chatting with. It's much faster than typing an address. By default, WhatsApp prompts you to choose how long to show your friend your location information: 15 minutes, an hour, or 8 hours.

But it will be unpleasant to find out that you have shown someone your location in real time for a long time due to the fact that you mistakenly sent geodata to the wrong interlocutor.

To avoid this, open "Settings" → "Account" → "Privacy" → "Geodata" and make sure that you do not give access to your movements to anyone else.

12. Send private messages from public chats

When you reply to someone's messages in public chats, everyone in the conversation can see it. But you can also send private responses. To do this, select a message in the general chat and select the "Reply in person" option from the menu.

13. Revoke unwanted admin rights

Have you appointed someone as an administrator in the group you created, and they are abusing their authority? Revoke his rights. To do this, tap and hold a group in the chat list, then tap Menu → Group Data. Select the name of the person you want and click "Cancel Admin".

14. Hide photos and videos from gallery

By default, the WhatsApp client on Android saves all received media files to your smartphone's gallery. That is, if someone sent you a confidential photo, you may well accidentally show it to your friends when you show off your vacation pictures to them.

Go to Settings → Chats and turn off Media Visibility. Now uploaded files will not be saved in the gallery. At the same time, you will save mobile traffic.

15. Block the application

In the iPhone version of WhatsApp, you can secure your app with biometric authentication. Thanks to this, no one will be able to read the correspondence and send messages on your behalf, even if you leave your smartphone unattended.

Open WhatsApp and tap Settings → Account → Privacy → Screen Lock. Turn on Touch ID for fingerprint recognition or Face ID for face recognition. Then choose after what time of inactivity to block WhatsApp.

On Android, this feature is currently only available in the beta version of the app.

16. Delete unnecessary messages

Did you send a message to someone and immediately realized that this should not have been done? WhatsApp allows you to fix this error. To do this, press and hold the message until you highlight it, and then select the "Delete" option from the menu.

However, unlike Telegram, WhatsApp does not delete the letter without leaving a trace. Instead, the recipient will see the message "This message has been deleted." What you have sent cannot be deleted after about an hour.

17. Disable message backup

WhatsApp can back up your conversations to Google Drive on Android or iCloud on iOS. This is useful if you want to recover your messages after a system reset or transfer them to another device.

But in the cloud, messages are stored unencrypted, which, by the way, is what WhatsApp warns about in the settings of this function. So if someone gets access to your repository, then the correspondence will be in the wrong hands. If you've secured Google Drive and iCloud with two-factor authentication, there isn't much to worry about. But all the same, for paranoid people, it is better to disable backup of messages altogether.

Tap Settings → Chats → Chat Backup → Backup and set the radio button to Never. Now WhatsApp will only store copies of chats in the smartphone's memory.