WhatsApp has introduced a new feature which will allow you to hide your IP address during WhatsApp calls. This privacy feature operates by routing all your calls through WhatsApp’s servers. As a result, your calls won’t establish a direct connection, ensuring that your IP address remains concealed from the person you are calling.
Currently, WhatsApp’s one-to-one calls operate through a direct peer-to-peer connection, providing excellent voice quality but necessitating the exchange of IP addresses between devices for this connection to be established.
WhatsApp has unveiled a fresh privacy feature that alters this process. Instead of establishing direct connections, this setting reroutes your calls through WhatsApp’s servers, concealing your location and ensuring that your IP address remains undisclosed to the recipient of your call.
It’s worth noting that group calls on WhatsApp inherently employ WhatsApp’s servers for relay purposes by default.
How to Hide Your IP During WhatsApp Calls
To enable or disable this setting, follow these steps:
- Open WhatsApp and tap on “Settings.”
- Go to the “Privacy” section.
- Tap “Advanced.”
- Toggle “Protect IP address in calls” on or off as desired.
The Meta-owned platform has warned that the new feature will negatively affect the quality of WhatsApp calls. “When using call relaying, you might find the call quality is reduced.” Wrote WhatsApp.
However, users who are concerned with their privacy will live with this trade-off. Further, the calls remain end-to-end encrypted, meaning no one, including WhatsApp itself, can eavesdrop on your conversations.
It is the latest security enhancement from WhatsApp after launching a passkey feature for Android users last month. Further, it shows the platform’s commitment to privacy especially after Meta fought off the UK government’s efforts to have backdoor access to WhatsApp messages.
