A few days ago, on this blog, we talked about a new WhatsApp update called Stories, which now has been officially released and that  is available for all Android, iPhone and Windows Phone users. What is Stories and how can you use it?

This new feature, quite similar to the Stories feature of Instagram and Snapchat, allows users to share videos, pictures and GIFs with their contact. The characteristic of the Status update is that it disappears automatically after 24 hours. Now let’s see how to use this new WhatsApp feature, that will let you do different kind of actions.

First of all let’s see how to add WhatsApp Status update. Once you have opened WhatsApp, go to the Status icon and tap on it. Once you are here, you will be able to take a new photo or video or, if you prefer, you can select an existing one and send it simply by tapping the Send button. Of course you will be enabled to customize your personal Status updates.

Now that you have updated your status you can either wait for it to expire (24 hours) or delete it. In order to delete it just go to the Status screen and tap on the three dots next to My Status. At this point tap and hold your status update. After that tap on the Trash icon and then Delete. For iPhone users the procedure is slightly different: just tap on the three dots menu next to My Status and swipe left on the Status update. Now you can press Delete. What if you are a Windows Phone user? Don’t worry, just open the Status screen, press More, Trash and then Delete.

What’s great about this latest Status update is that let you mute or unmute status updates of a particular contact. Let’s see how you can do it. Once you are in your Status screen tap and hold the contact’s status update that you need to mute and press Mute. The procedure is a little different for iPhone users, who will need to swipe left on the contact’s status update and then tap Mute. If you use WhatsApp with a Windows Phone device you will have to go to the Status screen, long press a contact and finally tap Mute. What if you decide to unmute a status update? It’s very simple, you just need to go back to the muted status and tap Unmute.

If you are concerned about privacy issues, well, don’t worry, for Status updates are protected by the end-to-end encryption. By default you share your status updates with your contacts, alternatively you can decide to share them just with selected contacts. Here’s how you can change your status privacy.

First of all (of course) open WhatsApp and head to the Status screen. From here press Menu > Status Privacy. Now you can choose who is allowed to see your Status updates. iPhone users need to press the Privacy button located on the top left of the screen, while Windows Phone users have to tap More > Privacy settings. Finally just a reminder: if you have disabled the Read and Receipt option you can’t see who has seen your Status update.