WhatsApp for Android Said to Be Testing Advanced Chat Privacy Feature to Limit Message Sharing

WhatsApp is said to be developing a new feature for its Android app which adds another layer of privacy in conversations. According to a feature tracker, the Meta-owned instant messaging platform’s Advanced Chat Privacy feature may let users restrict the media they share with others from being automatically saved to the recipient’s gallery. It is also said to offer privacy-focussed restrictions such as blocking export of entire chat histories and more potential additions.

WhatsApp’s Advanced Chat Privacy Feature for Android

According to WhatsApp feature tracker WABetaInfo, Meta Platforms’ instant messaging client is developing the Advanced Chat Privacy feature for release on a future version of the app. It was spotted in WhatsApp Beta for Android app version 2.25.10.4. The feature is said to be optional and can be toggled by navigating to the app’s settings. Once it is enabled for the sender, the recipient who receives image or video files in a conversation will not be able to automatically save them to their device’s gallery.

Based on screenshots shared by the feature tracker, if the recipient tries to save the media, a Can’t auto-save media pop-up will appear with the following description:

“Advanced chat privacy has been turned on, and prevents media auto-saving to your device’s gallery.”

Additionally, WABetaInfo suggests that it might offer other privacy-focussed restrictions too. WhatsApp may block the export of chat histories which include messages from users who have activated the Advanced Chat Privacy feature. Additionally, it will prohibit participants in the same conversation from interacting with Meta AI — WhatsApp’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.

Notably, a similar feature exists when disappearing messages are enabled in WhatsApp, but this in-development functionality may bring the same level of privacy to standard conversations too.

WABetaInfo claims that this new ability is still in development and is not available even to beta testers registered via the Google Play Beta programme. However, it is to be noted that while the instant messaging platform might be working on several new features for various platforms, not all of them make it to the public release.