WhatsApp Just Made It Harder For Other People To Save A Copy Of Their Chats With You
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Summary
- WhatsApp is launching a new “Advanced Chat Privacy” feature designed to prevent other users from exporting your chats.
- This privacy setting works on a chat-by-chat basis, allowing you to enable it for specific one-on-one or group conversations.
- While it blocks the export function, users can still get messages off the app via screenshots or forwarding, with future updates expected to add more restrictions.
WhatsApp has long been a staple for digital communication, with over 2 billion active monthly users trusting it for their daily interactions. The messaging app is constantly gaining new features which help it acquire new users — but getting the fundamentals right is what keeps users coming back.
At the core of the messaging app are security and privacy-focused features, including the likes of end-to-end encryption, disappearing messages, two-step verification, options to disable read receipts, last-seen information, profile photo visibility, and more.
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Now, building upon the fundamentals, WhatsApp is rolling out a new “Advanced Chat Privacy” feature, and it essentially makes it difficult for others to take their chats with you off WhatsApp.
First revealed earlier this month in a beta build, the new feature is available for one-on-one and group chats, and it mainly prevents others from exporting their chats with you. Additionally, the block also prevents user devices from being able to automatically download media and use messages from your chat with them “for AI features.”
The feature is a welcome addition, but it isn’t a perfect shield
Source: WhatsApp
I haven’t been able to try out the feature since it hasn’t rolled out to me. However, judging by the image shared by WhatsApp, the new feature will work on a chat-by-chat basis, which means you’ll be able to enable it for certain contacts, while leaving it disabled for other, more trustworthy contacts.
The setting for it will be located right below the Chat lock toggle in a contact/group chat’s information screen. Once enabled, if the person on the other side of the chat tries to export the chat, they’ll be met with a “Can’t export chat” message. “Advanced chat privacy has been turned on, and prevents exporting this chat,” reads the prompt.
We think this feature is best used when talking with groups where you may not know everyone closely but are nevertheless sensitive in nature, like talking about health challenges in a support group or organizing your community about something important to you.
It’s worth noting that this doesn’t mean users have no other way of taking your messages off WhatsApp. Users can still screen-record or screenshot their conversations with you. Alternatively, they can also forward messages from their chat with you to a burner phone number, and export the chat that way. The new Advanced Chat Privacy feature essentially only adds a hurdle in the chat export process.
WhatsApp added that this initial release is only the first iteration of Advanced Chat Privacy, and future enhancements will bring more privacy and security capabilities to the feature — potentially including restrictions on message forwarding and screenshots.
