Privacy on WhatsApp has always been a controversial point within the app. The mere introduction of read receipts, also known as blue double check, caused a stir. Needless to say, shortly after, the company added the option to disable that feature. A similar case is “Last seen” which shows us the day and time we last opened WhatsApp; if we keep it enabled, we can see others’ and if we disable it others won’t see ours, but we won’t be able to check theirs either. While these options have gradually gained the ability to be toggled on and off, there is one that also affects our privacy and that for the moment cannot be controlled; we’re talking about the “Online” status that appears to the other person when we are using the app. There is an age-old trick to hide “Online” on WhatsApp and read new messages in true ninja style: unseen.
Hiding “Online” on WhatsApp is very simple and you won’t need to download anything
Because many of us find it annoying that other people can keep tabs on us. In our head the echo of “you connected at X time” rings, or maybe it’s just not a good time to talk; you read the message, the other person sees you “Online” and if you don’t reply they think you ignored them. To avoid these melodramas, we’ll show you a trick that, although a bit cumbersome, is fully recommended for one-off, one-way situations — that is, when you don’t plan to reply for a long time.
The goal, after all, is to read the message(s) you’ve been sent, but without leaving any trace of it, right? Well, for that, when those WhatsApps arrive, you simply must leave the smartphone without Internet. The quickest way is to put it in airplane mode, for example, which cuts all the phone’s connections, making sure it’s not connected via Wi‑Fi or mobile data. That way, while offline, you can open WhatsApp without leaving a trace that you’ve read the messages, because your phone will not communicate with the service’s servers. Obviously, you won’t receive new WhatsApps until you reactivate Internet, which is why we mentioned earlier that it’s optimal for occasional use. This little trick to hide “Online” on WhatsApp has its pros and cons.
It’s true that there is third-party software that claims to do the same, such as the ShutApp extension compatible with the Firefox browser (for WhatsApp Web), with which you can hide your status as well as disable read receipts, although the latter can already be configured from the app, as we said before. Below you have the link to download it.
So, have you already managed to hide “Online” on WhatsApp? This is surely one of the best WhatsApp tricks you probably didn’t know.
.
