Have you ever wanted a little more privacy when sending messages from your phone? You’re lucky.
Stealth settings are becoming more common and sophisticated as Apple and Meta (the company behind WhatsApp and Facebook) compete to show that they are more privacy focused.
This ranges from deleting “disappearing” messages themselves to preventing other people from seeing if you’ve read the message you’ve just sent (or if you’re online at all).
Send an iMessage with invisible ink
You can send a message in “invisible ink” that recipients can swipe across the screen to see
You can send a message in “invisible ink” that recipients can swipe to see: Invisible Ink is one of Apple’s animated message bubble effects.
Type a message in a new or existing conversation to activate it.
Hold the send button and then tap the gray dots to reveal different effects.
Tap the Send button to send the message.
Prevent people from snooping your iMessages over your shoulder
If you have an iPhone X or newer, the TrueDepth camera is intelligently enabled so others don’t see your messages in iMessage
If you’re looking at your camera, a full preview of your message will appear on your lock screen, but if someone else is looking at your iPhone, the preview won’t appear.
To enable this feature, go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode and press the slider to enable Alerts features.
Face ID and Passcode and press the slider to turn on Attention Awareness features and prevent people from snooping your iMessages over your shoulder” class=”blkBorder img-share aligncenter aligncenter” > Go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode and hit the slider to enable Attention Aware features and prevent people from snooping on your iMessages over your shoulder
Prevent iMessage contacts from seeing if you’ve read a message
Showing a friend or colleague that you’ve read their message can be helpful, but it can also be annoying because it means you have to reply.
Fortunately, it is possible to turn off the function – whether you want to do it for all conversations or just one.
Go to Settings > Messages and enable or disable read receipts.
Delete an instant message you just sent
We all know that moment when you text and then you think, “No!” – Fortunately, it is possible to disable iMessage messages for up to two minutes.
The recipient gets a message saying you didn’t send a message, but doesn’t know what it says.
To unsend a message, tap and hold the message bubble, then tap Unsend.
A note will appear in both your and the recipient’s conversation logs confirming that you have undone the message.
Enable “stealth mode” in WhatsApp
“Stealth mode” allows WhatsApp users to hide whether they are online or not, or choose which users can see when they are online
“Stealth mode” allows users to hide whether they are online or not.
It also lets a person decide who specifically wants to show their online status.
It was one of many new tools that Meta, WhatsApp’s parent company, unveiled in 2022.
Meta described the tool in a press release as one of many designed to keep messages “as private and secure as face-to-face conversations.”
To enable this, go to “Privacy” under “Settings” where you can adjust an option “Who can see when I’m online”.
Set it to “As last seen” and change the settings to “Last seen” to exclude the contacts you don’t want to see when you’re online.
Or you set “Nobody” and one of your contacts sees that you are online.
Disable the blue ticks in WhatsApp
Impatient messengers love WhatsApp’s blue ticks, which let you know right away if your message has been read.
But it’s easy to eliminate the brands and let people hang out instead.
Go to Settings > Privacy and move the Read Receipts slider to the off position.
However, users who enable this feature will still send read receipts in group chats.
If you’re worried about messages coming back and haunting you in the future, why not set a timer for them to self-destruct?
Automatically delete your messages in WhatsApp
If you are worried that your message history will haunt you later, you can set your WhatsApp to delete automatically.
WhatsApp users can set timers that automatically delete messages between 24 hours and 90 days after they are sent.
Go to Settings > Privacy and select Disappear messages to activate the timer.
However, this only applies to chats that are sent after the timer has been set.
Older messages must be deleted manually if no timer was previously set.
Disable Last Seen in WhatsApp
A look at a regular WhatsApper’s “last seen” time is a good way to see if they woke up in the morning or came from their afternoon meeting.
However, users can turn off the feature to avoid being bothered when they first check their phone in the morning.
To do this, go to Settings > Privacy and you can set “Last seen” to “Everyone”, “Nobody”, “My contacts” or “My contacts except…”, which allows you to exclude specific people .
Prevent people from forwarding your WhatsApp photos or taking screenshots
When you send an image in WhatsApp using the View Once feature, the app blocks downloads, forwarding or screenshots – ideal for sending out photos on a drunken night.
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When you send a picture in WhatsApp, just select the little “one” in the window that says “Add Caption” and it will be sent in View Once mode.
Prevent others from seeing when you’re online on Facebook Messenger
Story Controls” class=”blkBorder img-share aligncenter aligncenter” > Like many modern apps, Facebook offers the Messenger story feature, but you don’t have to share it with your entire contact list. Go to Privacy & Security > Story Controls to limit your stories
The green “on” light that shows you’re online in Messenger can expose you to unwanted attention – but you can turn it off.
To do this, go to the gear icon next to your name, select Active status and disable the slider.
You can also prevent others from seeing when you are active in the same chat as them.
This can be achieved by moving the slider that says “Show me when you’re active together” to the “Off” position.
Prevent people from seeing your Facebook stories
Like many modern apps, Facebook offers the Messenger story feature, but you don’t have to share it with your entire contact list.
Go to Privacy & Security > Story Controls to limit your stories.
Select Custom and select the contacts you want to see your stories for.
Limit who can send you on Facebook
People who have your mobile number for whatever reason can message you by default on Messenger, just like friends of Facebook friends.
You can turn this off so they have to send message requests instead of being able to message you in the first place.
Go to Privacy & Settings > Messages – and from there you can set it to ‘Chat’, which lets people message you, or to Message Requests, which they have to ask for, or to ‘Don’t Receive Requests’, which let people be completely blocked.
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Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
