Hide your Last Seen Open WhatsApp, go to Settings > Privacy > Last seen. Choose “Nobody” or “My contacts except…” to control who can see when you were last active. This stops strangers — and even certain contacts — from tracking your activity patterns.
Hide your Online status WhatsApp lets you control who sees when you’re online. Go to Settings > Privacy > Last seen and online. Under Online, select “Same as last seen”. This ensures that if someone can’t see your last seen, they won’t see your online status either.
Use ‘My contacts except…’ smartly If you don’t want to disappear completely, choose “My contacts except…” and remove specific people. This is useful if you want privacy from colleagues or acquaintances without hiding your status from close friends and family members.
Turn off Read Receipts (blue ticks) Go to Settings > Privacy and turn off Read receipts. While this doesn’t hide online status, it prevents others from knowing when you’ve read their messages, adding another layer of privacy to your WhatsApp activity.
Remember: privacy works both ways Once you hide your last seen and online status, you won’t be able to see others’ activity either. That’s WhatsApp’s trade-off. If peace of mind matters more than visibility, these settings are worth enabling and sticking to.
Ankita Chakravarti is a seasoned journalist with nearly a decade of experience in media. She specializes in technology and lifestyle journalism. She has worked with top Indian media houses like India Today, Zee News, The Statesman, and Millennium Post. Her expertise spans tech trends, phone launches, gadget reviews, and entertainment news. Ankita holds a Master's in Journalism and Mass Communication along with a degree in English Literature. She can be reached out at ankita.chakravarti@nw18.com
