Petteri Pyyny
24 Feb 2017 5:05
WhatsApp added a feature called "Status" to its app in February, 2017, copying the feature from the likes of Snapchat, Instagram and Messenger.
What it is then?
To put it simply, Status has now its own tab within the WhatsApp application, where you can see your contacts' statuses and where you can update your status. Status is a video, picture or a short text that will be shown to all of your contacts for the next 24 hours. Updating your status, however, does not send it out as a message to your contacts, but simply is shown inside the Status tab in WhatsApp app.
So, unless your contacts visit their app's Status tab, they wont know that you've updated your status.
Now, statuses disappear automatically after 24 hours - and there is no archive of past statuses, so once the status has been visible for 24 hours, it simply disappears, for good.
By default, your status is visible to all the people you have in your WhatsApp contact list. However, under security and privacy settings, you can limit that to specific people only - or to make it visible everybody, even to those who you haven't added to your contact list.