All of these settings are in Settings › Privacy. You can hide your last seen and online status, your photo and About, and turn off read receipts (blue ticks).
Open the Privacy settings
- Android: ⋮ › Settings › Privacy.
- iPhone: Settings (bottom) › Privacy.
Last seen and online
- Tap Last seen and online.
- Under Who can see my last seen, pick Everyone, My contacts, My contacts except... or Nobody.
- Under Who can see when I'm online, pick Everyone or Same as last seen. Choosing "Same as last seen" with "Nobody" hides your online status too.
Fair-play rule: if you hide your last seen from people, you cannot see their last seen either.
Profile photo, About and status
In the same Privacy screen, tap Profile photo and About and choose who can see them. Status has its own list (My contacts, My contacts except..., Only share with...).
What the ticks mean
- One grey tick: sent from your phone, not delivered yet (their phone may be off or offline).
- Two grey ticks: delivered to their phone.
- Two blue ticks: they opened the chat and read it.
- In groups, the ticks turn blue only after everyone has read it. Long-press your message and tap Info (Android: ⋮ › Info) to see who read it.
Turn off blue ticks
In Privacy, switch off Read receipts. Others will not see blue ticks from you, and you will not see theirs. Read receipts in groups and for voice messages that have been played still show; this setting cannot hide those.
Who can add you to groups
In Privacy › Groups, choose My contacts or My contacts except... so strangers cannot add you to groups. They will have to send you an invite instead.
If it doesn't work
- Someone still sees you online: check "Who can see when I'm online" is set to "Same as last seen".
- You cannot see a friend's last seen: they may have hidden it, or you hid yours.
- Can't find an option: update WhatsApp from the Play Store or App Store; older versions have fewer choices.
Safety tip
Use Privacy › Privacy checkup (if your version has it) to review everything at once, and set Calls › Silence unknown callers to stop spam calls from unknown numbers.
This is GroupChatOn’s own easy guide. We are not WhatsApp and are not linked with WhatsApp or Meta. WhatsApp sometimes changes its menus: if a button looks different on your phone, update WhatsApp from the Play Store or App Store.
Still stuck?
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Questions, or an error not listed here?
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