Top 5 WhatsApp Privacy Settings Every Indian User Should Enable Right Now

In recent years, WhatsApp has become a crucial part of everyday communication. Not just in India, but globally, billions use it to keep in touch with family, coordinate work, receive business updates, or share documents. While WhatsApp natively enables end-to-end encryption for personal messages and calls, other privacy and security features can help keep your data secure. These include simple two-step verification, biometric locks, and even controls that prevent strangers from adding you to groups or repeatedly calling you.

Here are five WhatsApp privacy settings that every Indian should enable right now to improve the privacy and security of their WhatsApp account.

Turn On Two-Step Verification

The most simple setting that you can turn on is two-step verification. It provides extra protection when your WhatsApp number is registered on another device by someone you do not know. To do this, navigate to Settings > Account > Two-step verification > Turn on. Now, create a six-digit PIN, and you're good to go.

Following this, whenever someone attempts to register your number on any other device, this PIN will be required in addition to the verification code. You can also provide an email address for recovering the PIN if you forget it. However, do avoid using easily guessed combinations such as your birthday.

Restrict Who Can See Your Personal Information

WhatsApp's ability to restrict personal information is useful if your contact list includes businesses, former colleagues, delivery personnel, or people you no longer regularly communicate with. Your profile picture, About information, Status, and online activity can potentially reveal information to people you don't know. Thankfully, you can hide much of the information on WhatsApp.

To use this feature, head over to Settings > Privacy. You will find separate controls for Last Seen and Online, Profile Photo, About, Links, and Status, which can be restricted to My Contacts or use My Contacts Except... to prevent specific people from viewing them.

Silence Calls From Unknown Numbers

Despite repeated attempts by TRAI at curbing spam and fraudulent calls, they remain a nuisance in India. Fortunately, WhatsApp's Silence Unknown Callers feature prevents calls from numbers you don't recognise from ringing your phone. While silenced calls will still appear in the Calls tab, you can simply check them later without being interrupted.

Go to Settings > Privacy > Calls and enable Silence Unknown Callers.

Lock WhatsApp and Sensitive Chats

If you've ever accidentally left your phone in a workplace setting, there is a chance someone might have attempted to snoop in. To ensure your privacy, WhatsApp offers a built-in chat lock and app lock feature, which protects your conversations separately even if your smartphone is already secured. For particularly sensitive conversations, Chat Lock provides another layer of privacy. Locked conversations are kept separately from your regular inbox and require authentication to access.

Protect Your IP Address During Calls

Want additional privacy during calls? You can now protect your IP address too. Enabling this feature relays calls through WhatsApp's servers, which prevents the other caller from seeing your IP address and eliminates the risk of potentially revealing your approximate location. WhatsApp emphasises that calls remain end-to-end encrypted, although relaying them can affect the call quality.

You can enable Protect IP Address in Calls under Settings > Privacy > Advanced.

Bonus: Another interesting feature that WhatsApp is currently developing is usernames. Like Telegram, this will eventually let people contact you through a username, eliminating the need to share your phone number. While you can already reserve usernames on WhatsApp, the feature has yet to be widely rolled out.