Android users of Whatsapp can Hide now

The $19 billion aquisition of Whatsapp by Facebook has brought in some changes and one of that coming up after a lot of Android users requests from around the world. It is now confirmed that WhatsApp will now let them hide their timestamps.

The was till now only a coveted feature of WhatsApp's iOS users, lets people keep to themselves when they were last seen online. This new feature will extend to the purview of visibility of status messages and profile photos same as the way Facebook lets users customize what they want to show publicly. 

Now this feature is available only to Android users meanwhile WhatsApp's iOS users will have to wait for it.

This is not yet available on Google Play. For users who want to experience it soon have to download the apk file from the official website of WhatApp. You have to change security settings on Android devices need to be changed before the new update can be installed.

Once installed onto an android device, the APK file will present users with two options - to use either 'package Installer' or 'Verify and Install'. WhatsApp asks users to choose the Package Installer option, which will seek permission to make changes to the app. When allowed, the installer will not affect the user's existing Whatsapp data.

From the settings menu on the app privacy option provides users with three choices, namely, 'Everyone', 'My contacts' and 'Nobody'. This comes with a catch; Once a user hides their online presence,they will simultaneously forego the ability to see other people's timestamps, whether or not they have changed their privacy settings.

One option that Android users will have an interesting edge over their iOS counterparts: They can switch between being 'seen' and 'unseen' more than once in a day - there is no upper limit on the number of times they can switch. iPhone users need to wait an entire 24 hours before they can change their visibility.