It's important for parents to have greater control over what their children can see or do. Some parents also find it important to ensure their kids don't spend too much time chatting online. With WhatsApp, the next update could offer some privacy for a child's account.
Secondary WhatsApp accounts
According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is developing a feature that allows parents to link secondary accounts. These secondary accounts would have limited features or certain restrictions, including some profile and interaction features. Moreover, parents won't have direct access to the secondary account's messages and calls, offering some privacy to the child.
However, the parents can review and adjust the secondary account's privacy settings. That's something younger children might not be aware of, making it important for the adult to have direct control. In addition, these secondary accounts will only (by default) accept messages and calls from saved contacts, which eliminates the risk of exposure to unknown users. Messages will also be protected by end-to-end encryption.
Other upcoming features
Besides parent-controlled secondary accounts, WhatsApp has a few other new features in the works. One of them is the option for users to identify by a username on WhatsApp instead of their phone number. This is a privacy measure, as it helps the user keep their phone number from being exposed. Of course, the phone number can still be revealed if both parties save each other's contact information.
Other upcoming features include the option for users to add a cover photo to their profile, group chat history sharing, and shorter timers for disappearing messages. The release date for these features has not been confirmed, but we can expect to hear more from WhatsApp in the coming months.
What other feature are you hoping to see in WhatsApp? And is there an existing WhatsApp feature that you think needs improvement? Let us know in the comments below, and stay tuned to TechNave for more news like this.
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