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WhatsApp's new Advanced Chat Privacy protects sensitive messages. WhatsApp has introduced a new Advanced Chat Privacy feature to protect sensitive information exchanged in private chats and group conversations. The new privacy option can be enabled after tapping the chat name and is designed to prevent attempts to save media and export chat content. "Today we're introducing our latest layer for privacy called 'Advanced Chat Privacy.' This new setting available in both chats and groups helps prevent others from taking content outside of WhatsApp for when you may want extra privacy," WhatsApp said. "When the setting is on, you can block others from exporting chats, auto-downloading media to their phone, and using messages for AI features. That way everyone in the chat has greater confidence that no one can take what is being said outside the chat." The company added that this is the first version of this feature, and it's rolling out to all users who have updated WhatsApp to the latest version. WhatsApp is also working on adding more protections to Advanced Chat Privacy to make it even more effective. However, it's important to note that, even after enabling Advanced Chat Privacy, there are still ways to extract sensitive media and information, such as taking a picture of the WhatsApp conversation if screenshots are blocked. ​The new Advanced Chat Privacy feature is part of a broader effort to make communicating using WhatsApp more secure, which started almost seven years ago when the company introduced end-to-end encryption. Five years later, in October 2021, it began rolling out end-to-end encrypted chat backups to iOS and Android devices. In December of the same year, WhatsApp expanded privacy controls by adding support for default disappearing messages to all new chats. More recently, WhatsApp added support for locking chats using a password or fingerprint, introduced a Secret Code feature to hide the locked chats, and started allowing Android and iOS users to hide their location during calls by proxying the connection through WhatsApp's servers. Since October 2024, WhatsApp has also begun encrypting contact databases for privacy-preserving synchronization, ensuring that contact lists bind to accounts rather than devices, allowing easy management between device changes or replacements. Meta announced in early 2020 that more than two billion people from over 180 countries were using the WhatsApp video calling and instant messaging platform.