After signing in to your new account, you can head to the Account section in the app’s Settings menu to create an avatar, sort your communities, contacts, or groups into Lists, send a broadcast message, or link your WhatsApp account to a new device. You can also add a PIN to your account for multi-factor authentication. In future updates, I’d like to see support for other options, such as an authenticator app or a security key.
(Credit: WhatsApp/PCMag)
You can use your WhatsApp account on multiple devices by completing the device linking process. To do it yourself, tap the three vertical dots in the top right corner of the screen, generate a QR code, and scan it with your primary device. I was able to link an iPhone to the web app without any trouble.
Privacy
Now, let’s look at some other highlights of the Settings menu, starting with the Privacy menu. I recommend skipping the individual privacy settings at first and scrolling down to the Privacy Checkup button. From there, follow the steps to choose who can contact you, add you to groups, see your online status and profile photo, and receive your read receipts. You can also set a timer for disappearing messages and back up your chat history.
(Credit: WhatsApp/PCMag)
When you allow WhatsApp to access your phone’s Contact list, you’ll discover that every person you’ve ever interacted with IRL is probably on WhatsApp. Thankfully, you can block anyone who messages you on WhatsApp (and report spam).
In the Privacy menu on Android and iOS, there’s a feature called Chat Lock that lets you hide conversations from view by locking the chat behind a layer of authentication. To lock a chat, swipe left on the conversation you want to lock. Tap the three dots and choose Lock Chat. From there, use biometric authentication, such as Apple’s Face ID, to hide the chat window in a folder called Locked Chats.
Next, create a secret code in the folder’s settings menu. Enter that code in the app’s search bar to access the conversation. The content and contacts for new messages you get in a locked chat window will be hidden.
A visit to the Advanced section of the Privacy menu reveals three powerful privacy options you’ll want to try for yourself. First, toggle on the option to block messages from unknown accounts. This feature should cut down the number of scam or spam messages you receive while using the app. Next, toggle on “Protect IP address in calls,” which means WhatsApp relays your calls through its servers. I didn’t test this feature, but WhatsApp cautions that the setting may affect call quality. The final toggle to enable is “Disable link previews,” which helps to protect your IP from being divulged to third-party websites.
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Chats
The Chats section lets you change the appearance of your chat window by choosing a new theme, chat color, or wallpaper. You can also use Meta AI to generate new chat themes. A cool accessibility setting: you can turn off animations for emoji, GIFs, and stickers in this section, too.
(Credit: WhatsApp/PCMag)
In the Chats menu, you can transfer all your chats to another Android or iPhone device, or archive, clear, or delete your conversations. You can also create E2EE backups of your chats using the Chat Backup function. It’s a feature that recently arrived in Signal, but backups have been part of WhatsApp for quite a while. On Signal, only encrypted backups are available, while WhatsApp offers both unencrypted and encrypted backups. I suggest using E2EE backups if you’re regularly backing up your conversations. Unencrypted backups are appropriate if you’re just trying to retain your chat history while switching to a new phone.
WhatsApp can create transcripts of your voice messages, but that feature is off by default. Turn it on from the Chats menu. There’s also a section called Private Processing, in which Meta AI processes your chat messages and provides writing assistance or creates message summaries for you. According to Meta, this processing occurs off your device, but in a “confidential and secure environment where no one, not even Meta or WhatsApp, can read or access your personal messages.” Currently, Meta AI’s writing assistant is only available for English-language conversations.
Storage
(Credit: WhatsApp/PCMag)
This is the section where you can see how much space your in-app photos and videos are taking up on your device. You can also turn on disappearing messages by visiting Storage > Manage storage > Turn on disappearing messages. The message timer options are 24 hours, 7 days, or 90 days, and you can choose different delete times for certain conversations, which is very helpful.
