WhatsApp has made a privacy change to prevent people on the messaging platform from viewing the "Last Seen" status of users whom they have never chatted with, according to the latest report from independent feature specialist WABetaInfo.

As regular WhatsApp users will know, the "Last Seen" status of a contact sits atop the conversation thread, informing you when that contact last opened the app and was active on the platform. Users can disable their "Last Seen" status so that other contacts can't see when they were last online, but the setting's options are currently limited to "Everyone," "My Contacts," and "Nobody."

The latest change behind the scenes is said to be a privacy and security feature to prevent people you don't know and haven't communicated with from seeing your "Last Seen" status and online presence in the app.

According to a response from WhatsApp support, people and businesses a user knows or has previously messaged are not affected by the change.

To improve the privacy and security of our users, we're making it harder for people you don't know and haven't chatted with from seeing your last seen and online presence on WhatsApp. This will not change anything between you and your friends, family, and businesses who you know or have previously messaged.

As WABetaInfo notes, if a user can't view the "Last Seen" of any contacts they've already chatted with, it's because they have turned off the visibility of their "Last Seen" status or they've adjusted it on a contact-by-contact basis, a feature currently available to some users on WhatsApp beta that has yet to roll out globally.