Wonder how to see someone’s last seen online on WhatsApp even if that person disabled the feature? You’ve come to the right spot!
WhatsApp is the leader when it comes to communication apps with more than 2 million global users by 2021. A figure that is quickly rising day-by-day.
Since it was released, in 2009, it has been experiencing outstanding growth and has now taken over the communication space.
It runs on mobile devices, both Android and iOS, but you can also access it from your computer.
There is a convenient web version of the messenger that you can use on your PC as long as your mobile device remains connected to the network while you’re using the app.
WhatsApp offers a lot of capabilities, customization options, and privacy features, including the ability to hide your last seen online status, and hide reading receipts among others.
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How to see someone’s last seen online on WhatsApp
By default, if the other person has not chosen to hide their last online status, it is very simple to check it out:
- Open your WhatsApp app;
- Select the “Chats” tab at the top of the screen;
- Choose the desired contact you want to see the last online status by tapping its name;
- Wait a couple of seconds and the last seen status will appear at the top, right below the contact name, revealing both the date and the time when the contact last accessed WhatsApp;
- If the contact is online at the moment you’re checking, the word “Online” will appear below the contact’s name, instead of the last seen status.
Note: The online status appears when someone is using WhatsApp actively on a mobile device (reading content or chatting), or if there is a WhatsApp Web active window opened on a computer.
If WhatsApp Web is not the active window or active tab anymore and is now running in the background, the Online status will disappear after about 10 seconds, showing the last seen online time and date if the user has not chosen to hide it.
What if a contact has their last seen status hidden?
Is it possible to know someone’s last online status even if the person chose to hide it from other contacts? WhatsApp doesn’t natively allow it, but yes, you can override that issue by using some third-party apps. We’ll explain to you how to do it properly and effectively.
There are a bunch of apps and scripts that will let you check other contact’s last seen status and even create an activity log, so you can precisely know when a contact was online and for how much time.
Some are even able to send active notifications every time someone gets online or offline.
Note: Be careful though as many apps aren’t available in Google Play Store, and applications from unknown or insecure sources can contain malware or harm your device in some way. Use those at your own risk.
Using WhatsWeb Plus
We have been testing WhatsWeb Plus for Android which you can find in Play Store and it’s completely safe and functional.
It indeed does what it promises. It is a WhatsApp last seen tracker online that works quite nicely and it’s free if you’re tracking up to two numbers.
This app works by reading activity from WhatsApp Web. That means you need to be using it on a computer. The Google Chrome web browser is also a request.
Below are the steps you need to follow to use this app effectively:
- Open your Google Chrome browser;
- Install the WhatWeb Plus extension from the Chrome web store and run it;
- Open a new Chrome tab and access WhatsApp web by typing https://web.whatsapp.com;
- Verify if WhatWeb Plus is running on the left side of your WhatsApp Web window;
- Login into your Google account;
- Go to your Android Phone, and install the WhatsWeb Plus app;
- Then click on “Alarms”;
- There you have to login into your Google account so your smartphone synchronizes with your computer;
- Next, check if your status turned to “Connected”, shown in green. If not, refresh the WhatsApp Web window in your Chrome tab;
- Finally, click (+) to add the contacts you’re willing to track;
- Now you’re all set to start receiving pop-up notifications on your phone whenever some of the chosen contacts go online or offline.
The free version of WhatWeb Plus lets you track up to 2 contacts for a maximum period of 7 hours. After ending that period you’ll need to add again the intended contacts you want to be tracking.
There are other (paid) versions (Basic, Standard, Advanced, Master, and Pro) that will let you track more contacts simultaneously without any limit in time, and with no advertisements.
This app will also create a log with the contact’s WhatsApp activity.
Note: Have in mind that you should keep WhatsApp Web running on your PC so it is capable to track your contact’s activity and send it to your smartphone.
How to hide Online status
WhatsApp Messenger does not provide an option to allow users to hide when they are actively online using the app.
However, there are some tricks you can follow to read and reply to messages without appearing online:
- Put your phone into “Airplane mode” to cut any data and network connectivity;
- Open WhatsApp messenger. Now you can read and even reply to all messages, check statuses, etc. without appearing online;
- Close WhatsApp and wait for about 10 seconds;
- You can now disable “Airplane mode” on your phone to re-establish its connectivity.
Using this method, even your “Last Seen” status will remain unchanged. So, if you have the “Last Seen” visible, no one will notice you were active on WhatsApp and even replying to messages.
If you’re willing to know how to hide online on WhatsApp in a more convenient way, there are also some available third-party apps that can help you hide your “Online” status. “WhatsApp GB” is one of the best known.
It’s a sort of a WhatsApp modder and enhancer that adds a lot of features, one of them being the ability to hide the “Online” status every time you’re using the messenger.
Unfortunately, it is not available in Google Play Store, so you’ll have to download it and use it at your own risk.
Note: This WhatsApp modder is available both for iPhone and Android and sustains fairly good general feedback.
Wrap Up
Human beings are quite curious and for many particular reasons, tracking others’ online activity may have key importance and you may even have a strong reason to do it.
Even though the app lets you do it by default, users can revert that by disabling “last seen online” under privacy settings.
Fortunately, there are a lot of third-party apps developed having this issue in mind, so you can install a WhatsApp last seen tracker online and use it to override that situation and feed your curiosity.
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