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WhatsApp: Tricks to prevent the ‘App’ from becoming your worst nightmare

If you want to prevent the application from being a nuisance or from spying on the conversations that you pour into it every day, you need to use these features

WhatsApp is one of the communication tools most used by users.  The strong penetration of the tool means that, for some time now, the accounts of Internet users who use it have been among the main targets of cybercriminal groups. In addition, as it is a platform specially designed for conversations between two people, and which receives a huge amount of private information, we must try to put up all possible barriers to prevent someone who is overly curious from accessing it inside. Below we collect a good handful of tricks with which you can turn your WhatsApp into a useful app.

Always allow two-step verification system
WhatsApp has a two-step verification system, which allows the user to protect their personal account against impersonation attempts by third parties. To enable this option, go to ‘Configuration’ or ‘Settings’, depending on whether the ‘smartphone’ is iOS or Android, access ‘Account’ and activate the so-called ‘Two-step verification’. The platform will ask you for a six-digit code that you will have to use when you download the ‘app’ on another device. As it happens when you acquire a new terminal.

In addition, you can associate an email address with it. This is used for WhatsApp to send a link by mail to the user so that they can disable the two-step verification in case they forget the 6-digit access code. It should be remembered that this code is completely personal. Cybercriminals have launched various scams that seek to trick the user into sharing it.

Archive
It is possible that, on occasion, you have been worried that someone who should not pick up your phone and check your WhatsApp messages. If you want to avoid it, there is a very simple way to do it, and without any need to delete the conversation. This happens, in part, by archiving the chats that you do not want anyone to see. The option, which is available on both iOS and Android, can be applied to a single contact or all contacts in the list.

In this case, the user only has to hold down the chat in question, click on the ‘Archive’ option and it will automatically disappear from their list of conversations.

If you want to consult it at any other time, you only have to click on the ‘Archived’ section, which is found at the beginning of the list of conversations. Even if messages are received or sent through those chats, the conversation is not unarchived. Only the user can do it. There are also no on-screen notifications.

This functionality, in addition to allowing the Internet user to hide the conversations he wants, can be interesting to avoid inconvenience when one is on vacation or simply wants to stop constantly checking the messages that arrive in the chat on duty.

No Profile Picture
The platform allows you to select which users can see a contact’s profile picture. A functionality that can be especially interesting for those who have a predefined image with their children. To implement it, it is necessary to go to ‘Settings’ or ‘Settings’, depending on the operating system, ‘Account’ and ‘Privacy’. Under the option ‘Last. time’, you can see ‘Profile picture’.

Once you ‘click’ on it, you are given the option to limit who can see the image. It is possible to choose between ‘Everyone’, ‘My contacts’ and ‘No one’.

No connection time
If what you want is to prevent others from seeing if you read the messages they send you, what you should do is go to ‘Settings’ or ‘Settings’, ‘Account’ and ‘Privacy’. There you will find the ‘Read Receipts’ section. In case you deactivate it, the rest of the users will stop seeing the double blue ‘tick’ that shows that you have opened a conversation and have been able to read the messages that have been sent to you. However, if you disable the read confirmation, you will not be able to consult the others either.

Don’t bother with groups
WhatsApp groups can be useful when it comes to maintaining communication with friends, family and co-workers. However, they can also become a huge nuisance when messages keep coming in and, especially, when they add us to groups that we are not interested in being in.

If, for example, you want to configure WhatsApp so that only your contacts can add you to a group, you must go to ‘Settings’ or ‘Settings’, ‘Account’, ‘Privacy’, ‘Groups’ and select the ‘my contacts’ option. Likewise, the user has the option to choose ‘my contacts, except…’, which will allow him to manually select several numbers from the list of contacts that, from that moment on, will not be able to add him to groups.

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