WhatsApp users will be able to leave groups without everyone knowing. What other changes are happening?
Three new features are being added to the end-to-end encrypted messaging app as the company begins a UK-wide advertising campaign in the face of government criticism.

WhatsApp users will be able to leave groups without everyone knowing thanks to new privacy features.

The changes will also allow people to control who can see when they’re online and prevent screenshots of “See Once” messages from being automatically deleted. WhatsApp users will be able to leave groups without everyone knowing thanks to new privacy features.

The changes will also allow people to control who can see when they’re online and prevent screenshots of “See Once” messages from being automatically deleted.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of WhatsApp’s parent company Meta, describes the features as ways to keep users’ messages “as secure as face-to-face conversations.”

They are being launched alongside a global advertising campaign starting in the UK and India.

When people on WhatsApp leave group chats these days, the entire chat gets a notification that they have left, which could attract unwanted attention. The company says that now only administrators will receive a notification.

The app also broadcasts to all of a user’s contacts when they’re online and have the app open, something users can choose to share.

WhatsApp had previously warned users to “only send photos or videos with ‘See Once’ media enabled to people you trust,” as it was possible to take a screenshot or screen recording of the media before it disappeared.

Some saw the move as another feature that WhatsApp copied from Snapchat after the introduction of statuses in 2017.