Privacy Settings

Fetch and update all WhatsApp privacy settings including last seen, online status, profile picture, status, read receipts, and groups using Baileys

Fetch Privacy Settings

Retrieve all current privacy settings for your account:

const privacySettings = await sock.fetchPrivacySettings(true)
console.log('privacy settings: ' + privacySettings)

Pass true to force refresh the settings, or false to use cached values. The function is implemented in src/Socket/chats.ts:119-134.

Privacy Value Types

Most privacy settings accept these values:

• 'all' - Everyone can see
• 'contacts' - Only your contacts can see
• 'contact_blacklist' - Contacts except blocked ones
• 'none' - Nobody can see

Update Last Seen Privacy

Control who can see when you were last online:

const value = 'all' // 'contacts' | 'contact_blacklist' | 'none'
await sock.updateLastSeenPrivacy(value)

Update Online Privacy

Control who can see when you’re online:

const value = 'all' // 'match_last_seen'
await sock.updateOnlinePrivacy(value)

Online privacy has two options: 'all' or 'match_last_seen' (same as last seen setting).

Update Profile Picture Privacy

Control who can see your profile picture:

const value = 'all' // 'contacts' | 'contact_blacklist' | 'none'
await sock.updateProfilePicturePrivacy(value)

Update Status Privacy

Control who can see your WhatsApp status/about:

const value = 'all' // 'contacts' | 'contact_blacklist' | 'none'
await sock.updateStatusPrivacy(value)

Update Read Receipts Privacy

Control whether you send read receipts (blue ticks):

const value = 'all' // 'none'
await sock.updateReadReceiptsPrivacy(value)

Disabling read receipts ('none') also prevents you from seeing others’ read receipts.

Update Groups Add Privacy

Control who can add you to groups:

const value = 'all' // 'contacts' | 'contact_blacklist'
await sock.updateGroupsAddPrivacy(value)

Groups add privacy only supports 'all', 'contacts', or 'contact_blacklist'. The 'none' option is not available.

Update Default Disappearing Mode

Set the default duration for disappearing messages in new chats:

Supported Times

Time	Seconds
Remove	0
24h	86,400
7d	604,800
90d	7,776,000

Example

const ephemeral = 86400 // 24 hours in seconds
await sock.updateDefaultDisappearingMode(ephemeral)

// Disable default disappearing mode
await sock.updateDefaultDisappearingMode(0)

The default is 7 days (604,800 seconds). Use WA_DEFAULT_EPHEMERAL constant which equals 7 * 24 * 60 * 60 seconds.

Privacy Functions Reference

All privacy update functions are implemented in src/Socket/chats.ts:

Function	Line	Description
fetchPrivacySettings	119-134	Fetch all privacy settings
updateLastSeenPrivacy	168-170	Update last seen visibility
updateOnlinePrivacy	172-174	Update online status visibility
updateProfilePicturePrivacy	176-178	Update profile picture visibility
updateStatusPrivacy	180-182	Update status/about visibility
updateReadReceiptsPrivacy	184-186	Update read receipt settings
updateGroupsAddPrivacy	188-190	Update who can add to groups
updateDefaultDisappearingMode	192-209	Update default disappearing messages

Complete Example

// Fetch current settings
const settings = await sock.fetchPrivacySettings(true)
console.log('Current privacy settings:', settings)

// Update multiple privacy settings
await sock.updateLastSeenPrivacy('contacts')
await sock.updateOnlinePrivacy('match_last_seen')
await sock.updateProfilePicturePrivacy('contacts')
await sock.updateStatusPrivacy('contacts')
await sock.updateReadReceiptsPrivacy('all')
await sock.updateGroupsAddPrivacy('contacts')

// Set default disappearing messages to 24 hours
await sock.updateDefaultDisappearingMode(86400)

All privacy functions use the internal privacyQuery helper which sends IQ queries to WhatsApp servers with the appropriate XML namespace.