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What does 'last seen' mean on WhatsApp and how to hide it
If you send someone a message on WhatsApp, you might be interested to know if the person looked at the message. One way to tell if the recipient is online and checking their messages is by viewing their WhatsApp last seen status. But what does “last seen” mean, and how can you hide it if you want to conceal your online presence?
QUICK ANSWER
"Last seen" on WhatsApp is when someone last logged onto WhatsApp to send or read a message. You can easily switch this off if you are the privacy-conscious type. Doing so, however, will disable the two blue checkmarks seen on read messages to other people.
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What does last seen mean on WhatsApp?
When you send a WhatsApp message to someone and don’t get an immediate reply, it’s natural to wonder if they received it. The checkmarks next to each message help, of course, but you can also see when that person has last logged onto WhatsApp to view or send messages. If you haven’t received the two blue checkmarks indicating the message has been read, the last seen status will tell you if they are even checking WhatsApp at all at the moment.
The last seen status consists of the full date and time they were last seen on WhatsApp. In the screenshot above, my friend was “last seen today at 11:23.” WhatsApp uses a 24-hour clock.
However, if you are privacy-conscious or maybe trying to hide from someone for some reason, you may want to know how to switch this feature off. That’s what we’ll cover next.
How to hide your last seen status (Android and iOS)
Hiding your last seen status on your WhatsApp mobile app is very easy. First, go into your Settings and select Account.
In the Account section, choose Privacy.
At the top of the Privacy section, you’ll see the option to change your Last Seen status settings. Tap Last Seen, and select either Everybody, My Contacts, or Nobody.
How to hide your last seen status (desktop)
Go to the Settings section to hide your last seen status on the desktop. Once there, click Privacy.
In the Privacy section, click Last seen.
Now choose who can see your last seen status — Everyone, My contacts, or Nobody.
FAQs
No. If you enable the feature preventing others from seeing your last seen status, you lose the option to see other people’s. It’s only fair!
The function is not available in the official WhatsApp app. However, if you Google ‘fake last seen WhatsApp,’ there’s a link to an Android app that describes itself as a ‘modified version of WhatsApp.’ If you use this, you can apparently fake the last seen status. However, since this app is not in the Play Store (it is only an APK file on a file-sharing site), we cannot recommend you use it, as it could contain malicious code. If you decide to use it, it is at your own risk.