WhatsApp today launched the India edition of its global brand campaign to create awareness about its interlocking layers of protection that offer people more privacy and control over their conversations while messaging. In a press release, the Meta-owned social messaging platform said the campaign focuses on educating users on WhatsApp’s "built-in layers of privacy protections" that have been added over the years, including three new privacy features — leaving groups silently, controlling who can see when you're online, and screenshot blocking for ‘view once’ messages.
According to the release, the new features were announced earlier this month as part of a global campaign, adding to a host of existing privacy features, and demonstrating how WhatsApp’s multiple layers of privacy controls come together to provide users more protection when having a truly private conversation when messaging.
Over the coming weeks, WhatsApp aims to educate users on each privacy feature through short films which will highlight their benefits and the steps to activate them so that users can take advantage of WhatsApp’s built-in layers of protection, which include:
Leave Groups Silently: Users will be able to exit a group privately without having to notify everyone.
Choose Who Can See When You’re Online: For the times you want to keep your online presence private, WhatsApp is introducing the ability to select who can and can’t see when you’re online.
Screenshot Blocking for View Once Messages: WhatsApp is enabling screenshot blocking for View Once messages for an added layer of protection. This feature is being tested and will be rolled out to users soon.
Default End-to-End Encryption (E2EE): WhatsApp provides users with end-to-end encryption by default (regardless of device) so that their private conversations remain private.
Encrypted Backups: WhatsApp offers the ability to backup your chat history with end-to-end encryption so it’s secure and only accessible with a password or encryption key.
Disappearing Messages: This feature allows users to set durations for disappearing messages — 24 hours, 7 days, or 90 days — so that they can send photos and videos that disappear after they have been opened.
Block and Report: Users can choose to stop receiving messages and calls from certain contacts by blocking them and reporting them if they are sending problematic content or spam.
Two-step Verification: For more protection, the two-step verification feature gives users the option to set a unique six-digit PIN that can be used when registering their phone number with WhatsApp again.
