Having used Whatsapp on iPhone iOS 7+ and Android 4.x, I must say that there are some things that are different on both platforms for Whatsapp. One of the best feature in the iOS version that is not available on Android is the option to hide/disable “last seen at” function.
So what exactly does the “last seen” status mean?
Whatsapp has the following explanations:
What does “last seen at…” and “online” mean exactly?
The timestamps “online” and “last seen at…” tell you if your contacts are online, or the last time they were connected to WhatsApp.
- “online” means that contact has WhatsApp open and is connected to the internet. However, it does not necessarily mean they have read your chat.
- “last seen at…” refers to the time the contact left WhatsApp. You can also think of this as “went offline at…”
Note: If both the “last seen at…” and “online” timestamps do not display for one of your contacts, you may have been blocked.
Now, if you want to hide information about your “last seen” status, the FAQ section of Whatspp for Android says:
“How do I hide my last seen at time?
There is no option to go invisible or hide your online status from contacts on Android.
However, there is the option to block certain contacts. Once blocked, you will no longer receive messages from that contact, and your “last seen at” or “online” status will not be visible to them.”
Hmm.. so for Android there is an “all or nothing” approach. There are some people who installed Android applications to “disable” the last seen status, but they are at best clunky and the idea behind it is to disable data communication during the period of time. Well, it’s too troublesome and really not an elegant way to go about doing this.
So here you are, one interesting “problem” of Whatsapp on Android.
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