How to see who viewed your WhatsApp status

Want to learn more about WhatsApp Status? Want to see who viewed your WhatsApp status? This tutorial covers the feature and usage of the feature that many don’t even know exists.

WhatsApp Status has been around for a few years, but a lot of people don’t even know about it. Introduced to rival Snapchat Stories, it launched fairly quietly, without the fanfare and social media marketing typically used to push out feature updates. It offers the same image, text, and video sharing features as Stories with the same 24-hour lifespan. It’s a neat idea that nobody seems to be using.

WhatsApp has never been about pictures or videos. It’s always been about text messaging, group chats, and the convenience of encrypted messaging between friends or co-workers. Maybe that’s why WhatsApp Status hasn’t evolved like Snapchat Stories. Because it doesn’t quite fit the purpose of the network. Regardless of why, today we’re going to go through what WhatsApp status is and how to use it.

What is WhatsApp Status?

WhatsApp Status was introduced to keep WhatsApp competitive against Snapchat and Instagram. Both networks have similar features that offer time-limited updates that disappear after 24 hours, and WhatsApp wanted to be in on the action. The feature was introduced at the beginning of 2017 and has been present ever since.

You can find WhatsApp status in its own tab above your conversation list. As long as you’re using an up-to-date version of the app, it should be there. Tap the tab or swipe left on the home screen to access it. It’s been there the longest time, but it’s so easy to miss, and a lot of people I asked didn’t even know it was there.

How to add a WhatsApp status

Given how easy WhatsApp is to use, updating your status is just as easy as anything else in the app. Select the “Status” tab and then “My Status”. You can then add a message, video, file, image, or GIF to your status. You can also add text or emoji to the file for further customization.

You can edit with pinch gestures, resize, flip, rotate, change the color and font of text, and perform other minor editing tasks in the status window. When you’re done, click send and you’ll publish it immediately.

WhatsApp status will stay alive for 24 hours before disappearing forever.

See who viewed your WhatsApp status

If you want to see who viewed your WhatsApp status, you can do that. You can see exactly who viewed it on the Status tab.

In WhatsApp, tap the Status tab and tap your status. Then swipe up from the bottom.

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Select the eye icon to see who viewed your WhatsApp status.

When you open My Status, you should see a list of your updates and a little eye and a number on the right. This number is the total number of views your status has received.

Views are not displayed

Note that with read receipts turned on, you won’t be able to see who’s viewing your status updates. For whatever reason, the WhatsApp developers have decided that if you want to see what others are doing with your content, you have to give them something back. So if you can’t see who’s viewed your status, follow these steps:

Open WhatsApp and tap on the three vertical lines in the top right corner. Tap Settings.

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Tap Account.

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Tap Privacy.

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Finally, turn on read receipts. Even if you didn’t turn them on when you first posted your status, they’ll still show up.

Forward a status update

If you find that you are not getting enough views, you can forward WhatsApp status to a chat manually. I wouldn’t do this too often as you might upset your contacts, but if it’s something particularly relevant or important, it’s possible.

1. Open My Status and select the update you want to forward.
2. Select the green forward icon and choose where you want to forward it to.

You can select a recent chat, frequent contact, another contact, group, or use search to find a specific person. Once you click Next, your update will be added to the appropriate chat or you will create a new chat.

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WhatsApp status privacy

Only people you have saved as contacts can view your WhatsApp status. No one else will be able to see them, so privacy is assured there. You can refine this further if you wish in the settings menu.

1. In WhatsApp, select the Status tab.
2. Select the three dot menu icon and choose Privacy Status.
3. Set your option.

You have three options here: you can select My Contacts to let any contact see it, My Contacts Except… to block specific contacts from seeing it, or Only share with… to control exactly who can see what.

Delete a WhatsApp status

Even though every WhatsApp status clears itself every 24 hours, there may be times when you need to speed things up a bit. You can manually delete your update at any time as follows:

1. Open the Status tab and select the three dots menu icon.
2. Select the status update you want to delete.
3. Select the eye icon at the bottom of the screen.
4. Select the trash can icon and then select Delete to confirm.

Your update will be deleted immediately and will no longer be visible to anyone unless they already have it open on their screen.

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