How to View WhatsApp Status Anonymously

WhatsApp is the second most popular platform after Facebook. People mostly use it for personal or business purposes. WhatsApp status is one of the messaging app’s nifty features. People use it to post their photos, short videos, or text that can be seen by their contacts within 24 hours.

You can see whoever has viewed your status, but because many people want to stay low-key, they don’t want to appear on the list of status viewers. Also, you don’t want your contact, who include your exes, colleges, family, or friends, to feel like you’re following them socially. The good news is that you can now view your contact’s status without your name appearing on the list using certain third-party applications or changing some settings on your WhatsApp.

So then, let’s get started with how to view WhatsApp status anonymously.

Turn Off the Read Receipts

This is the official way to view contacts’ status updates without being notified. The downside of turning off the read receipts icon is that you will lose access to read receipt (blue ticks) indicators in your WhatsApp chats. The advantage of this option is that your contact will also not get read receipts when you read their chats.

Alternatively, you can temporarily turn off the read receipt to view the status updates that last 24 hours. You can turn on the read receipts when the status you viewed status expires to keep your activities a secret.

Here is how you can turn off the read receipts of WhatsApp on your device.

• Open WhatsApp on your phone.
• Click on Settings > Account > Privacy > disable Read Receipts.
• Go to the specific contact’s status that you wish to view their updates secretly.
• Retain that option until that particular status expires so that your name doesn’t appear on the view list.

It’s important to note that your name will appear on the list of viewers if you enable the Read Receipts option before the viewed status expires.

Further, with this option enabled, you will not see those who view your status as well, and it will also hide the blue tick or read receipt of the ordinary WhatsApp messages.

Go Offline and Use the Incognito Mode

When in offline mode, WhatsApp keeps track of status-viewed activities locally and syncs them when you go online. As a result, your contacts get notified that you viewed their status when you go online. To go around this, you can install the WhatsApp Web and use the Incognito mode to view status anonymously.

However, you should close the incognito mode first before going online to automatically delete any status-viewed activity on your computer. As a result, the local activities on your computer will not sync with the WhatsApp servers.

The following are the steps of using incognito mode to read your contact’s WhatsApp status without appearing on the list.

• Open WhatsApp Web in incognito mode.
• Click on the Status screen and view your contact’s status updates.
• Go offline or disconnect the internet connection on your computer.
• Open the status you would wish to view with the internet disconnected.
• Close the browser window after viewing the status in Incognito mode, automatically deleting the session data. You can also clear your browser data while Incognito mode before closing the window.
• Reconnect the internet back.

The downside of using this method is that you can only view text updates and get a rough idea about the images and videos. However, media files from this status will not download because you’re offline.

However, sometimes WhatsApp pre-downloads media from statuses without you opening them, making it easy for you to view a fully downloaded version when offline.

From File Manager

The method works when you have a File Manager application like ES file explorer installed in your phone and has the view hidden files option. You can install such an app on your smartphone by downloading it on the Play Store. Still, your smartphone might have this as a default app which you can confirm before downloading one from Play Store.

The app automatically downloads the preloaded status on the phone when you open the WhatsApp status section. Further, the status will remain in your device under the WhatsApp folder until it expires. This allows you to secretly view the specific contact status using the file manager app.

• The following is how you can view your contact’s WhatsApp status through the file manager app installed on your device.
• Go to your WhatsApp and click on the status page to enable the contact status to preload locally onto your smartphone.
• Exist the WhatsApp app, go to the pre-installed ES File Explorer, any other file manager app, or built-in file manager app on your device, and click on the option “Show Hidden Files.”
• Follow this path, internal storage > WhatsApp > media > statuses folder.
• The statuses folder has stories of various users that got preloaded when you completed step 1. You can now copy these files and save them in another location.
• Open the folder with these files in your file manager to secretly view status updates of the specific person you’re following.

The advantage of using this method is that you can see the status of any contact saved on your phone anonymously, unlike viewing it on the WhatsApp app itself. It will also not affect your settings on your WhatsApp, such as the read receipt of the status and ordinary chats.

Download GBWhatsApp

The original WhatsApp has few features compared to the modded version. GBWhatsApp is a mod for WhatsApp with several extra features. The mod allows you to hide status viewed activity that your contacts post. This is one of many other features that the original WhatsApp doesn’t offer you.

GBWhatsApp is available in APK files but not in Google Play Store. You can download the APK file from a trusted repository to enjoy the app’s benefits.

Here is how you can sideload the app.

• Download GBWhatsApp APK from a reliable source on your Android device.
• Tap on the APK file to install GBWhatsApp on your device and go through the steps. After this installation, you will now have two different WhatsApp versions on your Android device.
• Use the file manager app to access the original WhatsApp directory in the internal storage of your phone and copy the Databases directory.
• Paste the copied directory on the GBWhatsApp directory on the internal storage on your phone.
• Launch GBWhatsApp and follow the usual setup steps to complete this process. The recently copied Databases directly will help your app automatically detect any backup on your device and restore the data from it.
• Go to the Chat’s screen when you complete setting it up, and tap on the menu button available on the top right corner. Select Privacy and click on hide view status.

You can now enjoy your contact’s status updates without appearing on the list of viewers.

Use Airplane Mode

The option is simple because it doesn’t have multiple steps. Here is how to view your contact’s WhatsApp status updates anonymously using airplane mode.

• Go to the WhatsApp status app and click on the status tab.
• Turn off the notification bar.
• Hit the airplane mode icon to disconnect the internet on your device.
• Tap on the status you want to view.
• Close your WhatsApp and clear all the tabs.
• Exit the airplane mode.

This option allows you to view your contact’s status anonymously or without your name appearing on the status viewers list because the servers don’t track changes offline.

The downside of this option is that the app might update your activities when you turn the Airplane mode off and restore the internet connectivity before the status expire.

View the Status Shortly Before Expiring

WhatsApp status vanishes after 24 hours. So tracking a status expiry time and viewing it shortly before it disappears can save you the hassle of downloading third-party applications, disconnecting your internet, or turning off the read receipt.

Further, this option eliminates the risks of being caught peeping into other people’s WhatsApp accounts by 99% because there will be no list of viewers when it expires. In fact, the majority don’t bother to check the list of viewers that late so it’s worth trying.

Conclusion

It’s not illegal to view your contact’s status. After all, these updates only last 24 hours. However, you might want to do it anonymously without them feeling that you’re following them socially. The WhatsApp application notifies your contacts when you view their status or read their text message (blue tick).

The article features six options for viewing your contact’s status updates without appearing on the view list. You can share with us your favorite method of viewing your friends’ status secretly on the comment section of this post.