​WhatsApp is rolling out new privacy features at the request of users. You can decide who in your address book can see that you’re online, and if you leave a group, you can choose not to notify group members.

You can practically avoid friends and other acquaintances more easily because you can set so that only certain people in your contact list can see if you are online or not. That way, you can choose who can see your last online status.

Another feature is coming soon that will allow you to leave a group without notifying users in that group. This is what is called an “Irish farewell”, which is to leave a party without saying goodbye to anyone.

This is a useful feature because there are times when a person who leaves a group, perhaps frustrated, tired, or angry, then privately “finds out” to others why they did so.

Another feature that is in testing and will be introduced eventually: a way to block users from capturing the screen to print so-called “view once” messages. These are images or videos that disappear after recipients open them once and then close them. Once these media files are closed, recipients will no longer be able to see them in their respective conversations and will not be able to access them again.

Photo source: Dreamstime.com

Sources: The Verge, TechCrunch