WhatsApp beta for Android 2.25.10.14: what's new?

WhatsApp has released a new Android update through the Google Play Beta Program, bringing the version up to 2.25.10.14.
What's new in this update? WhatsApp is working on an advanced chat privacy feature to limit message sharing, and it will be available in a future update!

In the article about the WhatsApp beta for Android 2.24.20.16 update, we announced that a security feature to block messages from unknown accounts was available. This feature allows users to automatically block high volumes of messages from unknown accounts by enabling an option in the privacy settings under the Advanced section. Unlike a blanket block on all unknown messages, this feature specifically targets accounts that send an unusually large number of messages in a short period, helping to reduce spam while ensuring important messages are still received. It appears that WhatsApp is committed to taking another major step forward in further protecting user privacy and security, making entire chat histories more private than ever before. Thanks to the latest WhatsApp beta for Android 2.25.10.14 update, which is available on the Google Play Store, we discovered that WhatsApp is working on an advanced chat privacy feature to limit message sharing!

As you can see from the attached screenshot, WhatsApp is exploring the implementation of a feature that will add a new layer of privacy to user conversations, scheduled for release in a future update. Specifically, the new advanced chat privacy feature will allow users to restrict media from being automatically saved to the device gallery. This means that if the recipient receives images or videos in a conversation with someone who has enabled this setting, those media files will not be automatically saved to their device gallery. It's worth noting that this restriction already applies to chats with disappearing messages, and WhatsApp now appears to be extending it to users who will enable the advanced chat privacy feature in the future.

This feature will offer a set of privacy protections, including restrictions on exporting entire chat histories. When advanced chat privacy is enabled, WhatsApp will block the export of chat histories that include messages from users who have activated this setting, helping to safeguard private conversations and prevent unauthorized data transfers. While this feature won't prevent message forwarding to maintain usability, it ensures that when activated, users maintain more control over whether entire conversations can be exported from the app. Additionally, if advanced chat privacy is enabled, participants in the same conversation will not be able to interact with Meta AI in any way.

At present, the advanced chat privacy functionality is limited to these features. However, since this is an early stage of development, WhatsApp may expand its capabilities in the future, with additional features potentially being introduced based on user feedback and further testing. It's important to mention that there is no indication that WhatsApp is introducing a screenshot detection mechanism to prevent chat screenshots. The decision not to include screenshot detection is likely because users could still bypass it by using WhatsApp Web or other external methods to capture their screens. Unlike mobile apps, web clients don't offer built-in protection against screenshots, making it difficult to implement an effective restriction without users finding alternative ways to take screenshots. In addition, since this feature will still allow messages to be forwarded, implementing screenshot detection for chats would be useless, as users could simply share messages through forwarding instead.

The advanced chat privacy feature will be optional, and users can decide whether to enable it in specific chats based on their preferences from the app settings. By enabling this setting, users will be able to gain greater control over how their entire conversations are shared, reducing the risk of unauthorized chat exports. This provides an added sense of security, particularly in conversations containing sensitive or private discussions. Each user will have control over whether to enable the advanced chat privacy feature from the chat info screen, and it can be managed by anyone in a conversation, like disappearing messages. This means that when engaging with someone who has this option active, the restrictions will apply to both parties, even if one user has not enabled the feature themselves. However, it will be possible to disable the feature at chat level, though doing so will trigger a notification in the conversation.

An advanced chat privacy feature to limit chat sharing is under development and it will be available in a future update. We will keep you updated with an additional article as soon as we have more details to share about this feature.

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