Whatsapp has rolled out a new feature that lets you silence calls from unknown numbers and do a privacy checkup. The company says its Silence Unknown Callers feature is designed to ‘give you more privacy and control of your incoming calls’.
It is a much needed filter for spam and scams, which I’ve been receiving increasingly of late. It says the calls will not ring on your phone, but ‘will be visible in your Call list’, on the chance it ends up being from someone you know/important.
The feature is not turned on by default, users would need to go to the Privacy tab under Whatsapp Settings and manually turn it on. It takes a few seconds to turn on, and this is what it looks like on iPhone:
The feature is part of another new update called Privacy Checkup, which appears on the Privacy tab. It helps you set up key features like choosing who can contact you, controlling your personal info, adding privacy to chats and to give you more protection.
It is vital to go into these settings as the app is one of the largest in the worlds and you won’t know who comes across your number either through leaked databases, hacks and irresponsible marketing. I find the increasing spam of late super annoying so some of these features are handy. The unsolicited texts are the worst, I just immediately block and sometimes report.
Refer to the Whatsapp blog for more info.