The new beta update for Android via the Google Play Beta Program has rolled out to WhatsApp and is now on version 2.25.12.21. Despite the update not providing users with features they can use immediately, it teases a new privacy option, Advanced Chat Privacy, that’s being worked on. As a result, this feature is still in development and will be available in a future update. It is meant to assist users in controlling how media, messages, and AI chats are handled within a set of chats.
This provides more control, especially about private or sensitive conversations, as it lets the user enable strict privacy settings chat by chat.
What is Advanced Chat Privacy?
An advanced feature, such as Advanced Chat Privacy, will provide users with more control over the content in individual chats. This feature, instead, will allow users to decide where to enable advanced protection, rather, another means of privacy settings for all conversations. This is especially for chats where the info is personal or confidential.
The feature restrains how data from the chat can be saved, exported, or accessed by other tools like Meta AI when allowed. As it operates at the chat level, it provides flexibility without impacting how the rest of the app behaves. Wishing to be protected when having a conversation, WhatsApp created this option to further fortify those who wish to have more control.
No Auto-Saving Media to Gallery
One of its most important features is the feature of not allowing media to be automatically saved to the phone’s gallery. If you just take a picture of an important document and send it through WhatsApp, it does not disappear after you have received and deleted it – by default, WhatsApp saves the incoming image or video, which can be considered a privacy breach when the content is sensitive.
If you have Advanced Chat Privacy turned on in a chat, shared media will remain inside WhatsApp, except manually saved. This allows you to avoid the showing of private content on your device’s gallery, which can be easily seen by others. Additionally, it helps you get rid of clutter in your gallery from the group chats or forwarded messages. Save items on turn remains a choice for the user, however, this feature provides additional privacy by default.
Block Chat Exports
Advanced Chat Privacy will also prevent you from exporting chat history for those chats. As usual, users can export entire chats from WhatsApp, including messages and media. However, when this feature is on, the export feature option will be disabled. This becomes crucial for chats that contain sensitive and confidential information.
This prevents the chat from being shared or saved outside WhatsApp so that there’s no risk of leaks or misuse. For many users who would like to have some private conversations and securely place them on the app only, it is a good setting.
No Meta AI in Private Chats
In fact, within a specific chat, WhatsApp will turn on and off Meta AI tools as well when Advanced Chat Privacy is on. For those who would like to avoid AI involvement in private conversations, users can pick automated replies and suggestions from Meta AI.
That setting is to ensure that in those chats, no AI features are active, keeping it human-only. For those who want privacy, this is a small but thoughtful addition that eliminates their conversations from being processed by background systems.
Transparent Changes and Notifications
The privacy feature can be enabled or disabled by anyone in the chat (as is any other feature), and WhatsApp will notify all participants in case of a change. This way allows everyone to know when chat settings are being changed. If Advanced Chat Privacy is turned on or off in some manner, the app will notify others that they are on or off. It helps in building trust and keeping everyone aware of the chat’s privacy level throughout the conversation.
Per-Chat Flexibility
The feature allows the user to decide where to apply it, as it is per chat. It won’t apply to all chats at once. You can decide to turn it on in some conversations, like work discussions, family chats, or sensitive matters, while leaving it off in other conversations.
It is flexible enough so that users can customize their privacy settings without all the essential functionality of the app, such as message forwarding or screenshots. This feature is being built by WhatsApp to give people more power over their privacy, one chat at a time.
