Hiding WhatsApp online status is the dream of many people for privacy reasons. So when the official feature of WhatsApp is here to eliminate online status, there may not be many users who activate it.
Yes, actually WhatsApp has promised a feature to hide online status coming last August. This was clearly announced by WhatsApp itself on its official blog.
To make your wish come true when you don't want to show your online status, we introduced the ability to choose who can and can't see when you're online. The feature will start rolling out to all WhatsApp users this month, WhatsApp said last month.
But in reality, this feature is delayed, for whatever reason. Luckily, after a long wait, this feature can already be used by some WhatsApp users who are members of the WhatsApp beta program, including us.
Because it's already at this stage and WhatsApp has announced its arrival, it won't be long before the feature to hide online status will come to all WhatsApp users. This means, be prepared if suddenly your acquaintances, friends, or colleagues lose their online status because they want to be more private.
According to a WABetaInfo report, this feature is already available in WhatsApp beta for Android version 2.22.20.9. WhatsApp seems to be rolling out this feature gradually to beta testers, as we only got it in version 2.22.20.11.
With this new feature, WhatsApp users can control who can see their online status or not see anyone at all, just like the controls for the last seen feature. The settings are in the privacy menu. Of course WhatsApp online status can appear as usual if the user wants.
Of course, this method can only be implemented if the WhatsApp you are using already supports the online status hiding feature. If not, then please patiently wait:
Open the WhatsApp application then tap the menu with the three vertical dots icon in the upper right corner
After that select the Settings menu or Settings then select the Account menu
Select the Privacy option at the very top
At the top of the Privacy page, you will see the option 'Last seen and online'
Select that option to change the Last seen or Last seen settings and online status
It should be noted that who can see your online status follows the Last seen setting, for example if your Last seen can only be seen by contacts, then your online status will not be visible to people who are not in the contact
Choose who can see your Last seen status, whether everyone; my contact; my contact, except; or nothing
After that select anyone who can see your online status on WhatsApp, is it everyone or the same as Last seen status.
One other thing to note, if you don't share your Last seen status and online status to anyone, then you can't see the Last seen status and other users' online status.