Well, Status updates launched with Whatsapp recently and the feature borrows a lot from SnapChat stories just like other apps in the Facebook eco-system namely Instagram and to a smaller extent Messenger and the main Facebook app.
Whatsapp introduced a new tab called status where anyone with the updated app can tap to add photos or videos for his desired contacts to enjoy only viewable for 24 hours.
The caveat though! All people in your contact list can view the shared stories by default which is rather annoying. Whatsapp doesn’t use handles like SnapChat but instead uses phone numbers in your contact lists by default. So any Tom, Dick and Harry with your contacts can view your status updates not forgetting the controlling parents.
And Parents are the reason we migrated to SnapChat in the first place, right?. Away from jokes, with SnapChat, someone asks to follow you and you only choose so if you deem it appropriate for them to follow you. In other words you have control on who follows you but Whatsapp’s stories are so far in default mode that anyone with your contact can follow you.
How to solve this menace?
In your new Whatsapp status window, tap the drop down menu button at the extreme upper right corner and then choose Status privacy.
Whatsapp will greet you with who can see your status updates. My contacts is chosen by default but this window displays two other options:
My contacts except……. Here you can exclude contacts that you don’t want to see your cool status update.
Only share with……. This allows to choose whom amongst your contacts who should see your status updates.
However Whatsapp warns that changes to your privacy settings won’t affect status updates that you’ve sent already. So you might have to reconsider visiting these status privacy options before you tap the send button of your status updates.
