Earlier this month, WhatsApp announced three new privacy features, two of which, ‘online presence control’ and ‘silent group leaving’ are reportedly coming this month.
The third feature, which WhatsApp did not have a tentative release date for, was a feature that would prevent other users from screenshotting your “View Once” messages. Now, according to WABetaInfo, we’re seeing the first few signs of WhatsApp working on the privacy feature.
Work on the feature had previously been spotted on WhatsApp Beta for iOS, and now has appeared on the Android app.
Image credit: WABetaInfo
According to the publication, when the recipient of the message tries to take a screenshot, the action will automatically be blocked. However, the sender of the message would not get a notification letting them know that a screenshot attempt was made, like it is on Snapchat. It is currently unknown if and how WhatsApp will block screen recording applications for capturing the ‘view once’ message. That and the fact that the recipient can use a secondary phone to take a photo of the message make screenshot blocking an easy-to-bypass security measure. Regardless, it is a step in the right direction for Whatsapp in its goal to become “as private and secure as face-to-face conversations.”
It is currently unknown when the feature will roll out to all users.
Source: WABetaInfo
