WhatsApp is about to make profile pictures much more interesting
Yes, you can have a NSFW one...
WhatsApp is working on another function to boost users’ privacy – allowing them to share a different profile picture and username with certain people.
The alternate profile feature will enable users to mask their information when someone new gets in touch – or maybe to make sure their boss sees a slightly more respectable photo than the NSFW one they want to share with friends.
At present, WhatsApp users can hide their profile photo from those who aren’t contacts, but the new function will allow them to set up a different photo and name visible until, or if, they decide to add new people to their contacts.
They are also expected be able to do the same for existing contacts, meaning certain people only see the secondary profile.
So if you don’t want your Mum or ex seeing that hilarious new profile pic from your holiday in Magaluf, problem solved.
The new feature was spotted by WABetaInfo in the latest WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.23.4 update, available on the Google Play Store.
However, it is not known when it will be released.
The alternate profile feature adds another layer of safety to the app, which is working on a number of new privacy functions.
In May, WhatsApp unveiled its new Chat Lock feature, which allows users to add a password to specific chats and puts them in a special folder. In addition, notifications from locked chats can’t pop up at inopportune moments, such as when you’ve just passed the phone to a friend to look at some photos.
Last month, the Meta-owned app announced the folder would now be hidden altogether, rather than being grouped in a rather conspicuous – or some may say suspicious – folder with all your other chats.
A few days earlier it was revealed the company is also beta testing disappearing voice notes that can only be listened to once.
Voice messages were launched in 2013 and have remained a popular feature of the app ever since.
In 2021, the ‘View Once’ feature was introduced for photos and videos, meaning once the recipient had opened a message, it disappeared forever.
The move was seen as a big step for privacy, so it is no surprise the company appears to be extending the feature to voice notes.
By adding a ‘listen once’ feature, users will have the same level of privacy, knowing the message can be heard only one time, and can’t be forwarded on to anyone else.
How to restrict your profile photo on WhatsApp
Even though anyone can send you a message on WhatsApp if they haven’t previously been blocked, you may not want to share your profile picture with each individual person.
WhatsApp’s new alternate profile function will add a nifty new solution to this, but until it is released, for now there is another solution by restricting your profile photo to contacts only – and even then you can deselect individual people and stop them seeing your picture.
Here’s how to boost your privacy.
- Open WhatsApp
- Go to Settings and click on Privacy
- Click on Profile Photo
- Here you’ll be given four options, meaning you can show your profile photo to either everyone, just your contacts, only your contacts except individuals you select from your contacts list, or nobody
- To deselect certain people and stop them seeing your profile photo,click on ‘My Contacts Except…’ and select the contacts who you don’t want to share it with
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