How to prevent others from seeing that you are online

Instant messaging services often offer online presence, last seen status, or even read receipts. Here’s how to deal with them.

Knowing when someone was last online in the app lets you know if they’re available to chat, and also lets you know if they’re ignoring your messages or just haven’t chatted yet. But if you do not want this status to be visible to your contacts, this option can be turned off.

However, you often have to make a compromise: if you don’t want your contacts to be able to see when you’re online or when messages have been read, you won’t be able to see their status or read messages they’ve read. or receipts. This may be an acceptable compromise if it means people won’t be able to tell when you’re on the phone or not.

How to hide your status on whatsapp

On the mobile app, tap Settings (iOS) or the three small dots in the top right corner, then Settings (Android). Then select “Account”, “Privacy”and “Viewed”. There are four options: “All”, “My contacts”, “My contacts except…”and “No one”. You can share your status with multiple people through the “My Contacts”option except…

How to turn off read receipts in iMessage

The iMessage platform in Messages on iPhone doesn’t broadcast your online or offline status to your contacts like other instant messaging apps do, but it does have read receipts. In iOS settings, you can select “Messages”and then disable “Send read receipts.”You can also do this for individual chats by tapping the screen at the very top of the chat to disable the “Send read receipts”option.

How to hide your status in Google Chat

Google Chat does the opposite of iMessage in this matter: there are no settings to control read receipts, but you can tell your contacts about your status. Open the mobile app, tap the three bars in the top left corner and select your status. Several options are available to you: Active, Automatic (depending on your activity), Away, or even individual status.

How to hide your status on Facebook Messenger

In the main conversation list in the Facebook Messenger app on your phone, tap on your profile picture (top left), then “Online Status”: after that, you’ll only have the “Specify when you’re online”option. This applies to all devices on which you have Facebook or Facebook Messenger installed, but disabling it does not affect your messaging or your activity on Facebook.

How to hide your status on Instagram

Like other Facebook apps (now Meta), Instagram by default shows your online status and the date you were last seen online. To change this, click on your profile picture in the mobile app (bottom right), then the three small lines (top right), Settings, Privacy, and finally Online Status. There’s only one option “Show online status”to hide or not tell the status. Very similar to Facebook Messenger.

How to turn off read receipts in Signal

Signal does not show your contacts, when you were last online and if you are currently online, to protect user privacy. However, it does offer read receipts that can indicate when the app was last opened. If you don’t want that, tap on the three small dots (top right) in the app, then select “Settings”and “Privacy”. You can then turn off read receipts and typing indicators in chats.

How to hide your status in Telegram

If you use Telegram, in the mobile app, go to “Settings”by clicking on the three small lines in the upper left corner of the main screen. Then select “Privacy & Security”to find the “Last Seen”and “Online”option. Possible options: Everyone, Contacts, Nobody. You can also select the “Never share with”option and choose who should never see this indication.