Tricks for staying offline on WhatsApp

Privacy on WhatsApp is a serious matter. But anybody can add an extra security layer to their profile by taking a few steps. If you would like to hide your personal data and avoid being exposed to other users, we’ll help you out with a few tricks for staying offline on WhatsApp. 

Get rid of the “last seen” and blue check

The first trick to be less trackable on WhatsApp is the simplest: get rid of the “last seen” timestamp and blue checkmark read receipt. To do this, go to WhatsApp and open the Settings section. Of all the boxes available, the only one we want is “Account,” so go there and then “Privacy.”

Once inside, click on the first field: “Last seen.” Here you can confirm who can see your “last seen” connection time. If you select “Nobody” as a default, say goodbye to seeing the “last seen” connection for your own WhatsApp contacts. Likewise, if you scroll down, you’ll see the box “Read receipts.” By unchecking it, WhatsApp won’t use the famous blue checkmark if that person has read your message. Is that a problem for you? The feature goes both ways: it’s either enabled for both or disabled for both, but nothing in between.

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Airplane mode

We always say airplane mode for smartphones is extremely underrated. It’s not just for air travel. This feature is useful for our everyday lives.

If you enable airplane mode, your data connection is completely cut off. So the person sending you a WhatsApp message will only see one checkmark in their app (the sent receipt). Until you turn off airplane mode, the tool won’t work, so you can read your messages up to that point.

Pop-up notifications

The last way to read messages from somebody without going online has to do with pop-up notifications. This WhatsApp feature was introduced relatively recently, but more and more people are making the most of this gem. To enable them, go to “Settings,” click on “Notifications” and enable “Pop-up notifications.” Several options will appear, though what you need to stay offline is “Always show pop-up notifications.”

From now on, all messages you receive on your cell phone will also appear as pop-ups, without needing to go to WhatsApp to check them. You can read, view or listen to them all “from the shadows,” which gives you an extra level of privacy. And of course, secrecy. We won’t deny it.

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