New WhatsApp update strengthens users' privacy controls

People can now select who in their contact list can see their personal information, including profile picture

WhatsApp has released an update adding stricter privacy controls for users. EPA

WhatsApp has introduced an update to its privacy controls giving users more choice over who can see their information.

People can select who to hide their profile picture, status and last active status from.

Previously, users only had the option to withhold this information from non-contacts.

However, the Meta-owned messaging app has now introduced a “my contacts except” category, which will allow them to specify certain people they wish to hide information from.

It means users now have four categories of privacy to choose from when it comes to their personal information: everyone, my contacts, my contacts except and nobody.

If the information is hidden from a specific contact, they will no longer be able to see your image in their address book or at the top of a chat window. They will also no longer be able to see when you were last online on the app.

WhatsApp has also added an update for its group calls function, allowing up to 32 participants to now join a call at any one time.

It has also introduced banner notifications for all participants to signal when people join or leave the call, as well as the ability to mute certain users during a call and for any two participants to send each other individual messages during group calls.

The new update is currently being rolled out for WhatsApp Teams members on iOS and Android.