How to Hide Your WhatsApp Status From Someone
You want to post a status without one particular person seeing it. WhatsApp has a button called Hide, and it is not the one you need.
To hide your WhatsApp status from someone, change your status audience so that person is left out. The Hide option does the opposite job: it removes someone else's status from your own Updates tab, and WhatsApp says it doesn't change whether they can see yours. Set the audience before you post: a change applies to new statuses, not to ones already shared.
Hide and status audience are two different things
People mix these up because both live in the Updates tab. Here is the split.
| Status audience | Hide | |
|---|---|---|
| Whose status it controls | Yours | Theirs |
| What it does | Decides who can see what you post | Moves their statuses out of your Status list into Hidden updates |
| Does it stop them seeing yours? | Yes, if you leave them out | No |
WhatsApp's help page on hiding statuses says it directly: hiding or unhiding someone's status doesn't impact their ability to see your status, and to exclude someone from seeing your status you adjust your status audience settings.
How to hide your status from one person
WhatsApp's status privacy page gives the steps, the same on Android and iPhone:
- Tap Updates.
- Tap More (three dots) > Status privacy.
- Choose My contacts except..., then select the person to leave out.
The three options on that screen are My contacts (all contacts can see your status), My contacts except... (choose contacts to exclude) and Only share with... (choose specific contacts). For one person, My contacts except... is the one you want.
You can also set it while posting: the composer has an audience button labelled Status (Contacts) that lets you customise who sees that update.
Timing matters. WhatsApp says changes to your privacy settings won't affect any status you've already shared, so if the person could see a status you posted earlier, they still can until it expires. Change the audience first, then post.
Will they know?
WhatsApp's help pages describe the status audience as your own setting and mention no notice sent to the excluded person. We can't say what that person notices on their side, since the pages don't cover it, and we won't guess.
For the other direction, hiding someone's status: the same applies. The hide page says nothing about telling them. What the page does say is that you'll still receive their statuses, only into the Hidden updates section.
How to hide someone else's status
- Open the Updates tab.
- Tap a status from the person.
- On Android tap More (three dots) > Hide > Hide. On iPhone tap More > Hide followed by their name, then Hide.
You can also tap and hold the status and tap Hide. To see them again, go to Updates > Hidden updates, open the status and choose Unhide. The Hidden updates section only shows up when a hidden contact has shared a recent status.
The same page notes a gap: if you hide someone's status, they can still send you statuses in chats with a mention. To stop that, WhatsApp says to block the person or archive your shared chat. Status mentions are private, with up to 5 per status.
What you can and can't control
- You can't set status privacy to Everyone, and you can't share a status with people who don't have your number.
- Your default audience is your contacts.
- Mentions override the audience. A person or group you mention can see that status even if they aren't in your audience, and a status you post to a group is visible to all its members whatever your status privacy says.
- A status lasts 24 hours.
- If you turned off read receipts, you can't see who viewed your statuses. Our guide on who viewed my WhatsApp status covers the viewer list.
If someone's status has disappeared from your view and you don't know why, why you can't see someone's WhatsApp status lists the possible reasons. To stop all their messages rather than only a status, see how to mute someone on WhatsApp.
Where Tenashi fits
A business that posts offers on status may want to keep suppliers or staff off the audience, and that choice is made on the phone that owns the number.
Status isn't part of the Tenashi inbox. You still post it from the phone. What Tenashi handles is the conversation that follows: when a customer replies to your offer by message, it lands in the shared inbox on your connected number, where your team can assign it, add internal notes and track the deal. That covers chats on your own connected business number, from the day you connect it. More on running a team on one number in our guide to WhatsApp for business.
Plans start at $18/mo. Get started.
FAQ
How do I hide my WhatsApp status from one person?
Change your status audience before you post. Tap Updates, then More, then Status privacy, choose My contacts except..., and select the person. Statuses you already shared keep their old audience. WhatsApp's Hide option only removes their statuses from your view and doesn't stop them seeing yours.
If I hide my WhatsApp status from someone, will they know?
WhatsApp's help pages describe the audience setting as yours alone and mention no notice to the person left out. They don't document what that person might notice, so we can't promise they won't find out in some other way.
What does Hidden updates mean on WhatsApp?
Hidden updates is the section of your Updates tab where statuses from people you've hidden appear. You still receive them, they just don't show in the main Status list. Open Updates, then Hidden updates, to view them or to unhide someone.
How do I hide someone's status on WhatsApp?
Open the Updates tab, tap their status, tap More and then Hide. You can also tap and hold the status and choose Hide. They can still see your status, and they can still send you a status mention in a chat.
Can I share my WhatsApp status with someone who doesn't have my number?
No. WhatsApp says you can't share your status with people who don't have your number, and you can't set status privacy to Everyone. By default your contacts can see your statuses, so the audience tools are about narrowing that group down, not widening it.
Hiding is for the statuses you see, the audience is for the ones you post. To keep the replies to your status in one team inbox, get started with Tenashi.