WhatsApp status allows you to share photos, videos, and messages that disappear after 24 hours. While this can be fun and useful, you may want to hide your status updates from certain contacts for privacy reasons. Luckily, WhatsApp gives you control over who can see your status updates.
Why You Might Want to Hide Your WhatsApp Status
Here are some common reasons you might want to hide your WhatsApp status from specific contacts:
- Avoid awkwardness with work colleagues or professional contacts seeing casual status updates
- Prevent ex-partners or former friends from seeing your activities and updates
- Keep your status private from people you don’t know well or trust
- Stop contacts you’ve blocked from viewing your status through mutual friends
- Control who gets access to location check-ins, photos, or videos you post
How to Hide Your Status from Specific Contacts
Android Devices
If you have an Android device, follow these steps to hide your status from chosen contacts:
- Open WhatsApp and tap the 3-dot menu in the top right
- Go to Settings > Account > Privacy
- Tap Status > My Contacts Except…
- Select the contacts you want to hide your status from
- Tap Done when you’ve selected all the contacts to hide from
iPhone Devices
On an iPhone, here is how to hide your WhatsApp status updates from specific people:
- Open WhatsApp and go to Settings
- Tap Account > Privacy > Status
- Tap My Contacts Except
- Select the contacts you want to hide status from
- Tap Done to save your settings
WhatsApp Web/Desktop
You can also hide your status from individual contacts using WhatsApp Web or Desktop:
- Open WhatsApp Web/Desktop and go to Menu > Settings > Privacy
- Click on Status > My Contacts Except
- Select the contacts you want to hide status from
- Click Ok when finished
Who Can See Your WhatsApp Status
By default, your WhatsApp status updates are visible to all of your contacts. But you can change this in your privacy settings.
Here are the status privacy options you can choose from:
| Status Privacy | Who Can See Your Status |
|---|---|
| My Contacts | All contacts in your address book |
| My Contacts Except… | All contacts except those you exclude |
| Only Share With… | Only the contacts you specifically select |
So if you only want certain people to view your status, choose the “Only share with…” option and select those specific contacts. Anyone not on the list will be unable to see your updates.
Additional Ways to Hide Your Status
Along with adjusting your privacy settings, there are a couple additional ways to hide WhatsApp status updates from people:
Disable Read Receipts
If you turn off read receipts, contacts won’t see if you’ve viewed their status updates. To do this:
- Go to WhatsApp Settings > Account > Privacy
- Turn off Read Receipts
This prevents others from knowing if you’ve seen their statuses. But it also means you won’t see read receipts from your contacts.
View Statuses Anonymously
You can view someone’s status anonymously by:
- Opening their chat
- Tap and hold their profile picture
- Tap View Status to see their updates without them getting notified
Use this to discreetly view statuses if you don’t want the other person knowing you’ve seen their updates.
Troubleshooting Hidden Status
If your status privacy settings don’t seem to be working, here are some things to check:
- Make sure you selected the correct contacts to hide status from
- Confirm the contacts you hid status from don’t have mutual friends with you that could relay your updates
- Check that you completely closed and restarted the WhatsApp app after changing settings
- Toggle the status privacy option off and back on again to ensure it saved properly
- If issues persist, try resetting your app’s cache and data/storage
Conclusion
Hiding your WhatsApp status from specific contacts is easy once you know how. Go to your privacy settings and choose “My Contacts Except” or “Only Share With” to control who sees updates.
Adjusting these options lets you avoid awkwardness, gain more privacy, and restrict status access as needed. Just be aware hiding status doesn’t block contacts from messaging you directly.
With the ability to fine-tune your status audience, you can share fun moments without worrying about who can view them. So customize your privacy and start posting status updates for your eyes only!