How to Hide Online Status on WhatsApp

You may feel frustrated when you find that somebody is using WhatsApp (he/she is online) but doesn't respond to your message. We should know that WhatsApp would reveal the status such as "last seen" and "online" while you are chatting with others. Although this seems convenient to know the condition of your contacts, sometimes it can be quite confusing and lead to the unexpected, more importantly, embarrassing situations.

If you are a new user of WhatsApp, you may get confused with the meaning of different WhatsApp status. Therefore, we provide this post to help you figure out the confusion. For those who want to hide WhatsApp online status, feel free to navigate to part 2 to grasp the solution.

Now let's start.

CONTENTS

Part 1. The Meaning of "Last Seen" and "Online" on WhatsApp

The two main WhatsApp online status should be "Last seen" and "online". Seemingly, these two symbols have similar meaning, which both express the person you are connecting to is using WhatsApp. But actually, some people would still feel confused about the difference between them. You can figure out it now.

WhatsApp "Last seen" status:

When you click into the conversation window, you can see the status, "Last seen today at 12:00 a.m.". What does it mean?

WhatsApp "Last seen" status means the last time the person uses WhatsApp accurately. As the example above stated, it shows that the last time when the person you used to chat with has used WhatsApp at 12:00 a.m.

WhatsApp "online" status:

It’s easier to understand that WhatsApp "online" status means the person is using WhatsApp or keeps WhatsApp running in the foreground. But you should also know that the "online" doesn't mean that he/she has read your message.

But actually, some people say that this WhatsApp feature as well as the WhatsApp ticks may break the relationship down because it can result in some embarrassing situations. So can we hide the WhatsApp online status like "last seen", making others unavailable to see it?

Part 2. How to Hide Online Status on WhatsApp

You may wonder why you fail to see some contacts’ "last seen" status sometimes. There are three main reasons:

* He/she may hide the status in privacy settings, so others can't see their "last seen" status.

* You have hidden your own "last seen" status. When you do this, you would also fail to see others' status as well.

* You may be blocked by the person so that you fail to see his/her "last seen" status.

Yes. This means that WhatsApp "last seen" status can be hidden so that you can keep your activity private and avoid some unexpected situations.

NOTE: You can only hide "last seen" status, and the "online" status can't be removed.

Here are the detailed steps on how to hide WhatsApp "last seen" status on iPhone/Android.

On iPhone

STEP 1. Launch WhatsApp on iPhone and direct to Settings section in the lower-right corner.

STEP 2. Go to Account > Privacy > Last Seen.

STEP 3. Select to show the "last seen" status to "Nobody", and people can't see your WhatsApp status from then on.

On Android

STEP 1. Open WhatsApp on Android. Then click on the three-dot icon on the upper-right corner to go to Settings.
STEP 2. Then turn to Account > Privacy > Last Seen.
STEP 3. Choose "Nobody" and your contacts would not see your WhatsApp "last seen" status anymore.

You need to remember that after you turn off your "last seen" status on WhatsApp, you would also fail to see others' status as well. But it can actually help to protect your privacy to some extent. When you want to turn the "last seen" status off, simply follow the steps above to disable it.