Today WhatsApp has officially announced the launch of Advanced Chat Privacy, which was leaked at the beginning of this month. This is a new “layer of privacy” that is available in both 1-to-1 chats and groups, and it lets you prevent others from taking your content outside of WhatsApp when you want extra privacy.
If you turn this on, you block others from exporting chats, auto-downloading media to their phone, and using messages for AI features. So, WhatsApp says, “this way everyone in the chat has greater confidence that no one can take what is being said outside the chat”. Unless of course people know how to use screenshots, but we digress.
WhatsApp thinks this feature will come in most handy “in groups where you may not know everyone closely but are nevertheless sensitive in nature, like talking about health challenges in a support group or organizing your community about something important to you”.
To turn this on, tap the chat name, then tap on Advanced Chat Privacy. WhatsApp says this is merely the first version of the feature and it plans to add more to it in the future so it “will eventually include even more protections”.