Whatsapp makes ‘Blue Ticks’ optional

Within days of adding the new “blue ticks” aka read receipts, WhatsApp has decided to give the user ability to disable them in settings.

WhatsApp has released the version 2.11.444 which would allow the user to control the much feared blue ticks. Post the update; the user can select whether or not to send read receipts (blue ticks) to the sender. However, if you turn off your read receipts, you would not able to see the read receipts of other users as well.

It would seem that all the major features of WhatsApp like the ‘Last seen’, the ‘Read receipts’ aka the blue ticks are features that the users force the company to make optional in an attempt to safeguard their privacy. As such most of these rather interesting features end up not being used. As of now, the update is yet to rollout on the Google Play store but you can directly download and install the latest version from the official WhatsApp website and heave a sigh of relief.

Here’s how to get rid of blue ticks in WhatsApp – but if you do this, then you won’t be able to see the receipts either. If you want to check when other people see your messages, then you need to allow them to see read receipts from you.

For now, this is only possible for Android users, and only if you manually update the app via the WhatsApp website.

The first step is to get the latest APK file from WhatsApp:

1. Download the latest (version 2.11.444) WhatsApp apk from the official website.
2. On your Android phone, go to Settings > Security > Check Unknown sources, to enable installing apps from outside Google Play. Note that the exact path to the setting can vary depending on your device manufacturer and Android version – the important thing to note is that you enable installing apps from unknown sources.
3. Open the apk on your Android phone. This will install the latest version of the app on your device.

Once the app is installed, here’s how to disable read receipts:

1. Open WhatsApp and tap three vertical dots icon on the top right.
2. Now go to Settings > Account > Privacy 
3. Uncheck Read receipts.

This will disable the blue ticks on WhatsApp.