WhatsApp privacy settings: last seen, groups, calls and your IP

WhatsApp is built around your phone number, and that number is the one thing you can't hide: people you message see it even if they never saved you. Almost everything else is adjustable, from your last seen time to who can drop you into a group or ring your phone. Ten minutes in Settings > Privacy covers it.

Quick steps:

Open Settings, then Privacy.
Set Last seen and online, profile photo and About to My Contacts or Nobody.
Open Groups and choose My contacts or My contacts except….
Under Calls, turn on Silence unknown callers.
Under Advanced, turn on Protect IP address in calls.
Run Privacy Checkup and finish with Two-step verification.

Where the privacy settings are

Android: tap the three-dot menu, then Settings, then Privacy.
iPhone: tap Settings (or your profile picture), then Privacy.
WhatsApp Web and Desktop: click Settings, then Privacy.

The main audience options are the same everywhere: Everyone, My Contacts, My Contacts Except… (your contacts minus the people you exclude) and Nobody. Group settings are the one exception: they can only be changed on the phone and then sync to Web and Desktop.

What people see before you change anything

Setting	WhatsApp's default
Profile photo, online status, read receipts	Any WhatsApp user
Last seen, About, status, profile links	Your contacts
Adding you to groups, mentioning you in a status	Any WhatsApp user
Calls from unknown numbers	They ring as normal
Default message timer	Off

One reassurance: nobody can see who has looked at their profile.

Last seen, profile photo, About and status

Open Last seen and online and pick an audience. This status only says when someone last had WhatsApp open and connected; it doesn't mean they read your message. The setting cuts both ways: keep yours hidden and you lose sight of everyone else's too. Even with Everyone selected, your last seen and online reaches only people you have messaged or called before, or whom you have saved as a contact: a stranger you have never talked to and haven't saved won't see it. And anyone who has your chat open can still see when you are typing.

Profile photo, About and the links on your profile use the same four options. Status is slightly different: it can't be set to Everyone, so it always stays within an audience you choose.

Read receipts

Read receipts in Settings > Privacy controls the blue ticks. Turning it off works both ways again: you stop seeing other people's receipts, and you can no longer see who viewed your status. Group chats are excluded, so receipts are always sent there whatever you choose.

Groups: stop strangers adding you

Out of the box, anyone with your number can put you in a group. To change that, go to Settings > Privacy > Groups:

My contacts: only people in your address book can add you directly. If someone else tries, WhatsApp tells them they can't and offers to send you a private invitation instead. You get three days to accept it before it expires.
My contacts except…: the same, minus contacts you pick. Useful if one particular person keeps adding you to groups you don't want.

The change applies to new groups only. It doesn't take you out of groups you are already in, it doesn't stop people sending you invite links (joining that way is always your decision), and in a community you are still added to its announcements.

Calls: unknown callers and your IP address

Silence unknown callers sits under Settings > Privacy > Calls. When it is on, calls from numbers you haven't saved don't ring, but they still appear in the Calls tab and in your notifications, so you can call back. Once you call or message a silenced number yourself, its calls can't be silenced any more. For any unknown call, WhatsApp shows whether the caller is a contact, whether you share groups, and which country the number is registered in.

Protect IP address in calls is in Settings > Privacy > Advanced. According to WhatsApp, it sends all your calls through WhatsApp's servers instead of connecting you directly to the other person, so the person you're calling doesn't see your IP address. WhatsApp adds three notes:

group calls already go through its servers by default;
call quality may be reduced while calls are relayed;
relayed calls are still end-to-end encrypted, like every WhatsApp call.

If you sometimes call people you don't know well, such as sellers or new contacts, it is a sensible setting to leave on.

Disappearing messages

To make new one-to-one chats clear themselves, open Settings > Privacy > Default message timer and choose 24 hours, 7 days or 90 days (or Off). For an existing chat, tap the contact's name or the group subject, then Disappearing messages. The timer only affects messages sent after you set it; older messages stay.

Privacy Checkup

If you would rather be guided, Privacy Checkup (in Settings > Privacy on Android) walks through four areas, each with the relevant switches:

Choose who can contact you: groups, silencing unknown callers, blocked contacts.
Control your personal info: profile photo, last seen and online, read receipts.
Add more privacy to your chats: a fingerprint lock for chats, the default message timer, end-to-end encrypted backups.
Add more protection to your account: two-step verification, a passkey, a recovery email.

It is a quick way to check you haven't missed anything after an app update.

Two-step verification and passkeys

Two-step verification is optional, but it adds a second form of proof besides the SMS code, which helps protect the account against unauthorised access. On Android it lives under Settings > Account > Two-step verification, and Privacy Checkup links to it as well. You can choose your phone number, a password or an email address as the extra check, and mark phones you use every day as trusted devices so logging in is quicker. A passkey lets you sign in with your fingerprint, face or screen lock. Our guide to password hygiene after credential leaks covers the password side.

Protecting your IP in calls is not the same as hiding it

Protect IP address in calls keeps your IP address from the person you call. WhatsApp's page says nothing about anyone else, and it does not stop WhatsApp's servers from seeing the address you connect from, or your Wi-Fi or mobile network from seeing that you use WhatsApp. With a VPN, WhatsApp and the sites you open see the address of a VPN server rather than your own, and the network you are on sees only encrypted traffic to that server, which helps on public Wi-Fi. It doesn't make your WhatsApp account anonymous: WhatsApp still knows which account is online, because you log in with your own number. What is my IP shows the address you currently use, and VPNRice apps are on the download page.

FAQ

Can I hide my phone number on WhatsApp?

No. WhatsApp says there is no way to hide it, and it is shown even to people who haven't saved you, including other members of a group. If hiding your number matters, see our guide to hiding your phone number on Telegram.

Why can't I see my friend's last seen?

They may have hidden it, or you may have hidden yours, which hides theirs from you in return. Even on Everyone, their last seen is shown only to people they have messaged or called, or saved in their contacts, so if you have never been in touch and they haven't saved your number, it stays hidden from you.

Does Protect IP address in calls make calls slower?

WhatsApp says call quality might be reduced, because calls are relayed through its servers rather than connected directly. The calls stay end-to-end encrypted.