WhatsApp has started testing a new feature for communities that will add an extra layer of privacy to a user’s account when joining certain communities. This feature will roll out to a wider range of users in the coming weeks.
This feature is called “phone number privacy” and works on the latest Android and iOS updates. Quoted from WABetainfo, this feature will be available for WhatsApp beta Android version 2.23.14.19 and WhatsApp beta iOS version 23.14.0.70.
Based on the screenshot from WABETAinfo, there is a warning if the user’s cellphone number can be seen by community admins and other users who have saved their number in contacts. Thus, this latest feature provides significant improvements to user privacy.
Apart from that, the latest feature is also useful for protecting someone’s phone number when that person reacts to a bubble chat. The presence of this new feature is intended to increase user privacy when joining a particular community, so that other users who are not in contact cannot see our phone number.
Read also : WhatsApp Launches Channels Feature, Allowing to Follow Favorite Accounts
If previously WhatsApp community users could not provide a reaction because it could reveal a phone number, then with the presence of this latest feature it can protect user privacy from criminal acts or various bad things that interfere with using a cellphone number.
However, this feature cannot be enjoyed by all users because it is still in stages. Meanwhile, it can only be used by a wider range of users in the future.
Source: cnnindonesia.com, lifepod.id
