WhatsApp, the popular chat app with over 500 million users in India, has introduced a new feature to address the growing concern of spam calls. In response to numerous complaints from customers in India regarding an increase in spam calls over the past few months, WhatsApp has taken action.
New call silencing feature
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, announced the new call silencing feature along with an additional privacy checkup option. This feature aims to provide users with enhanced privacy and control over their WhatsApp experience.
With the new feature, users can automatically silence incoming calls from unknown contacts. By navigating to Settings > Privacy > Calls and selecting the “Silence unknown caller” option, users can activate this functionality. While calls from unknown numbers will be silenced, they will still appear in notifications and the app’s call list, allowing users to check later if the call was from someone they know but haven’t saved their number.
When an incoming call from an unknown number is silenced, the user’s phone will display the number and the message “silenced unknown number.”
Another new privacy feature introduced by WhatsApp to enhance privacy
In addition to the call silencing feature, WhatsApp has also introduced a privacy checkup option. This feature will be available in the Privacy section and will guide users through a series of steps to familiarize them with various privacy controls. These controls include options such as “Choose who can contact you,” “Control your personal info,” “Add more privacy to your chats,” and “Add more protection to your account.” Through this process, users can adjust settings like two-factor authentication, determine who can add them to groups, set a default timer for disappearing messages, and manage visibility of their profile picture.
To address the issue of spam calls, WhatsApp implemented backend updates last month, utilizing machine learning-based detection capabilities. The company expects these updates to reduce spam calls by 50%.
WhatsApp’s new call silencing feature and privacy checkup option demonstrate the app’s commitment to providing users in India, its largest market, with greater privacy and control over their communication experience.
