WhatsApp may soon let users hide 'last seen' from specific contacts

Washington: Popular instant messaging application WhatsApp might soon allow users to hide their last seen and profile picture from specific contacts.

According to WABetaInfo, users will be able to hide their last seen WhatsApp status from specific people.

The last seen status rests at the top of the conversation, below the person's name. It tells you the time when a person was last seen online or when he or she was last active. At this point in time, you have the option available to disable the last seen option altogether. However, this option is implemented for all of your contacts.

Currently, there exists no option that allows you to disable last seen for specific people. However, you can set the option to "Everyone," "My Contacts," and "Nobody". The new change is spotted in the beta version of WhatsApp which will roll out in the near future.

As per Mashable, the new option to be part of the mix is "My Contacts Except..." which will allow users to specifically choose who they'd want to hide their "last seen" timestamp from.

As usual, once you disable the last seen status on WhatsApp, you will not be able to see their status as well. In addition, the same option is also present under WhatsApp's privacy settings for a user's profile picture and "About" information.

What this means is that the internet messaging giant is entirely bringing the app under the new privacy setting. The update will roll out in the future and no dates have been set so far.