Privacy settings are part and parcel, especially for social messaging apps like WhatsApp & Facebook.
WhatsApp contains a lot of privacy features—end-to-end encryption, stored messages, and many more.
You can also use the settings to control your privacy on Whatsapp.
For example, if you want to hide when you were last online on WhatsApp, you can freeze/hide your “Last Seen” status.
It can cause trouble for you if someone knows when you were last online on WhatsApp.
For instance, if someone has sent you a message on Whatsapp and you were online, the sender would expect you to reply instantly.
However, you might not be able to reply to them or unable to think of a reply at that time.
The problem is if you don’t reply them, they might think that you’re intentionally ignoring them which can cause negative impact on the sender.
To get rid of this kind of trouble, you can freeze your “Last Seen” status on WhatsApp by using the steps in this article.
How to Freeze “Last Seen” on WhatsApp
To freeze your “Last Seen” on WhatsApp, the first thing you need to do is to visit your privacy settings.
Once you reached your privacy settings, you can freeze your “Last Seen”, you need to it to “Nobody”.
It will stop others from seeing or knowing when you were last online on WhatsApp.
However, it will also prevent you from knowing when they were last online too.
So, if you have made your mind to freeze your “Last Seen”, bear in mind that you won’t be able to see “last seen” of other people as well.
Having said that, there is a trick that you can use to find out when someone was last online on WhatsApp even if your “Last Seen” is hidden.
In short, the trick is to change your “Last Seen” privacy setting to “Everyone” again and you can see online status of anyone and quickly change it back to “Nobody” again.
This tip will help you to see when someone was last online on WhatsApp if they have not hidden the last seen.
Here is a step-by-step guide on how you can freeze your “Last Seen” on WhatsApp.
#1: Go to WhatsApp Settings
The steps are Open WhatsApp > Settings > Account.
First of all, you need to open WhatsApp on your android device.
To visit the settings, tap on the Settings icon on the bottom bar.
Keep in mind that you will not be able to do this on WhatsApp web as you cannot access the privacy setting there.
There are multiple tabs on the Settings page once you reach there.
Your profile can be edit, you can see your starred messages, scan the QR code for Desktop, WhatsApp Web and so on.
You will see a tab named as “Account” below the WhatsApp Web/Desktop tab.
To visit your account settings, you need to tap on “Account”.
You can edit your account’s privacy and security settings from the account settings page.
You’ve successfully reached your account settings.
The next step is to go to your privacy settings.
#2: Tap on “Privacy”
Steps are: Account > Privacy.
After tapping on the “Account” tab (from the previous step), you will reach your account settings.
You can set your security and privacy settings from the account settings.
In addition, you can also request your account info or delete your account from settings.
To visit your privacy settings, you need to tap on “Privacy” (the first tab).
In the privacy settings, you will see the “Last Seen” settings.
This setting will allow you to hide your online status on WhatsApp.
You have successfully reached your privacy settings.
In the next step, I will teach you how to go to the “Last Seen” setting to freeze it.
#3: Tap on “Last Seen”
Steps are: Privacy > Last Seen.
After tapping on the “Privacy” tab (from the previous step), you will be on your privacy settings.
There are a lot of privacy features on WhatsApp that you can customize.
You can lock your WhatsApp (with Touch ID, Android Fingerprint lock, Face ID), add a two-step verification, select who can see when you last opened WhatsApp and so on.
After navigating to the privacy settings page, you can select who can see your “Last Seen”, “Profile Photo”, “About”, “Groups”, and “Status”.
Currently, you want to customize your “Last Seen” as you want to hide it.
To move on to your “Last Seen” privacy settings, you need to tap on the “Last Seen” tab.
In the last step, I will teach how to hide your “Last Seen” from others in a single tap.
#4: Change last seen to “Nobody”
Steps are: Last Seen > Nobody.
After navigating to your “Last Seen” privacy settings, you can choose who can view it.
It offers you three options where you can select from: ”Everyone”, “My Contacts”, and “Nobody”.
First of all, “Everyone” means that everyone can see it including your contacts and also those who are not in your contacts list can also see your “Last Seen”.
Secondly, “My Contacts” means that only your contacts will be able to see your “Last Seen”.
Thirdly, “Nobody” will hide your “Last Seen” from everyone, which means that no one will be able to see it.
To freeze your “Last Seen” on WhatsApp, you need to tap on “Nobody”.
After tapping on the “Nobody”, your “Last Seen” will be frozen.
In a nutshell, other people will not be able to know when you last opened your WhatsApp.
The same rule is applied to you, if your “Last Seen” is set to “Nobody”, you will not be able to see when other people last opened their WhatsApp too.
If you want to see when any of your contacts or someone was last online on WhatsApp, you need to set your “Last Seen” to “My Contacts” or “Everyone”.
How do I freeze my last seen on WhatsApp on iPhone?
The process of freezing your last seen on WhatsApp on iPhone is same as you are doing it on android device.
To freeze your last seen on WhatsApp on iPhone, follow these steps: open WhatsApp > Settings > Privacy > Last Seen > Nobody.
After setting up your last seen to “Nobody”, your last seen will be frozen to others.
In a nutshell, nobody will be able to watch when you were last online on WhatsApp on iPhone.
Can you freeze your timestamp on WhatsApp?
Yes, you can freeze your timestamp on WhatsApp.
To freeze your timestamp, you need to follow these steps: go to your Settings > Privacy > Last Seen > Nobody.
After setting your last seen to “Nobody”, your timestamp will also be frozen to everyone.
On the other hand, you can set your last seen to “My Contacts” which only allows your contacts to see your timestamp.
Is it possible to show the wrong last seen on WhatsApp?
Yes, WhatsApp’s “Last Seen” can be inaccurate or wrong.
Sometimes, the “Last Seen” on WhatsApp is wrong because it may be running on background apps even though you have closed it.
You can prevent this process from happening, your task is to force close it after exiting the app.
Force closing WhatsApp will provide accurate “Last Seen” on your WhatsApp.
Final Words
It is necessary to hide your “Last Seen” on WhatsApp because you might not want others to notice when you were last online.
If you do not type fast, it is ideal to hide your online status.
It will prevent others from thinking that you are ignoring them deliberately.
It is because the slow typers/texters do not do it deliberately.
Some people forgot about the message and some of them are too busy, in some cases, they might need time to think to give a reply.
Either way, the best method to get rid of it is to “freeze” your “Last Seen” on WhatsApp.
Arsalan Rauf is an entrepreneur, freelancer, creative writer, and also a fountainhead of Green Hat Expert. Additionally, he is also an eminent researcher of Blogging, SEO, Internet Marketing, Social Media, premium accounts tips and tricks, etc.
