WhatsApp Status Privacy: How to Control Who Sees Your Updates
Choose exactly who sees your WhatsApp Status, hide updates from certain people, mute contacts, and understand how read receipts affect who can see that you viewed a status.
By AdminPublished 2 min read
Your WhatsApp Status can reach everyone in your contacts - or just a handful of people. A few settings decide who sees your updates and whether others know you’ve viewed theirs. Here’s how they work.
Who can see your status by default?
Someone can see your status only if both of these are true:
- you have their phone number saved in your phone’s contacts, and
- they have your number saved in theirs.
On top of that, your Status privacy setting decides which of those contacts actually get your updates.
The three status privacy options
In WhatsApp, open the Updates tab, tap the menu (⋮ on Android, ⋯ on iPhone) and choose Status privacy. You’ll see three options:
| Option | Who sees your updates |
|---|---|
| My contacts | All of your saved contacts who also have your number |
| My contacts except… | All contacts except the people you select |
| Only share with… | Only the people you select |
Important: changes apply to updates you post after changing the setting. Status updates you have already posted keep the audience they were shared with.
Hide your status from one person
- Open Status privacy.
- Choose My contacts except….
- Select the person (or people) and confirm.
They won’t be told that you’ve excluded them - they simply won’t see your new updates.
Share a status with only a few people
Choose Only share with… and pick the contacts. This is useful for family-only photos or for business updates you want to send to a short list of customers.
Who viewed my status?
Open My status and tap the eye icon (or swipe up on an update) to see the list of viewers. The list is only available while the status is live (24 hours).
How read receipts change things
If you turn off read receipts (Settings › Privacy › Read receipts):
- people won’t see that you viewed their status, and
- you won’t see who viewed yours.
It works both ways, so you can’t hide your views while still seeing everyone else’s.
Mute someone’s status
If you don’t want to see a contact’s updates but don’t want to remove them, mute them: press and hold their status in the Updates tab and choose Mute. Their updates move to a Muted section at the bottom. They aren’t notified.
Delete a status
Open My status, tap the menu next to the update and choose Delete. Note that anyone who already viewed it may have saved a copy - once something is shared, you can’t fully control it.
Privacy tips before you post
- Remember that viewers can screenshot or save your status. Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want shared further.
- Check the background of photos for addresses, documents or children’s school names.
- Use Only share with… for sensitive updates rather than relying on “My contacts”.
Want to keep your own updates after 24 hours? See how to save a WhatsApp status.
