WhatsApp’s status feature is widely used by many to share photos and videos with friends and family. The status feature also gives you adequate control with the option to share it with all your contacts or a selected few. WhatsApp shows a list of everyone who has seen your status. But what do you do when you want to see others’ status secretly? Well, there aren’t many options so read-on if you’re curious to know how to view WhatsApp status without them knowing.
See WhatsApp Status Anonymously
Methods That No Longer Work
Before moving on let’s deal with the elephant in the room. I’m sure you must have read about a few tricks by now, so before you waste your time trying them, here are some methods that you should avoid.
Also, WhatsApp tackles these shortcomings by constantly pushing updates which is great (not in our case though). So, if you’ve read these methods somewhere, try and avoid them until you’ve plenty of time in your hand.
- WhatsApp Web – You open the status tab in WhatsApp web and enable airplane mode. With updates, now the status doesn’t load until you click and view the status, which defeats the purpose as you won’t remain anonymous anymore.
- Third-Party Apps (avoid if you don’t want a ban) – Likely to work for a short while until they shut down due to violations of WhatsApp’s Terms of Service. Also, these apps are likely to infringe on your data and privacy, hence should be avoided.
1. Native Method – Read Receipts
This is the official method and also the easiest one that lets you secretly view the WhatsApp status of any contact. The best part is that it’s a native way and you don’t need to depend on shoddy tricks or third-party apps filled with malware. For this method, we’re going to change the read receipt setting. Let’s see how it works.
Open WhatsApp and tap on the menu icon on the top right corner of the screen. Then select Settings from the bottom of the drop-down menu.
Now tap on Account which is the first option below your display picture and open Privacy. In this section, you’ll find all privacy-related options however we’re just looking at the read receipt setting. You’re most likely to find this setting enabled if you haven’t tweaked it before. Now, disable the setting by tapping on the Read receipt option.
That’s it, you’ve successfully disabled read receipts which means that whenever you view someone’s status, your name will never pop up in the list.
Drawback
If you disable this setting, not only others but also you won’t be able to see people who’ve seen your status. Another issue is that the setting is universal and will also hide the read receipts (blue ticks) in normal text messages, etc.
2. File Manager
This trick would require you to have a file manager that has a ‘Show hidden file feature’. Most of the native file manager apps don’t have it, so I suggest using a third-party app. The one I use is Files by Google which has this feature in the settings menu.
To enable, tap on the hamburger icon on the top left corner of the screen and open Settings. Now enable the ‘Show hidden files’ option.
Before browsing the files, make sure to open the status tab in WhatsApp so that it pre-loads the story. After that, open the file manager app, scroll down to Internal storage, and select the WhatsApp folder.
At the bottom, open Media and tap on Statuses (hidden folder). Here, you’ll be able to view all the stories that have been pre-loaded.
3. Airplane Mode
This is the oldest trick and doesn’t require multiple steps like the first two methods. To get it to work, all you have to do is open WhatsApp and swipe to the status tab. Once you’re there, swipe down from the top of the screen and tap on the Airplane mode icon. This disconnects the internet so essentially, the app cannot connect to the server. Now, tap and open the story you wish to view. When you’re done, close WhatsApp and clear the recent app tabs. Voila, that’s it. The other user won’t see your name in the seen users list.
4. View Just Before Expiry
Whenever you upload a status, it remains active for 24 hours. If you wish to view a status secretly, try and time it just when the story is about to expire. Most likely, your friends won’t check it so late and by the time they do, the window will have closed. It’s a hit and miss but still worth the try.
Easiest Way to View WhatsApp Status
I tried tons of methods before writing this, and these are the only ones that worked. I often disable the read receipt setting when I want to stay anonymous which is the simplest method of all.
Also Read: How to Read Deleted WhatsApp Messages on Android
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