Users can now silence incoming calls of unknown numbers on WhatsApp, as per a new feature recently added to the popular social messaging app. In their official blog, WhatsApp has stated that this new feature aims to provide more privacy to users while giving them more control of incoming calls.

To access the 'silence unknown callers' feature, click on the three dots in the main menu of the app and click on 'Settings'. From there, click on 'Privacy'. Scroll down a bit to see the 'silence unknown callers' options under the 'Calls' settings. Turning the option on will make incoming calls from unknown numbers automatically silenced. However, these calls will still be shown in the Calls tab of the main menu as well as in your notifications.

Alongside this new feature, WhatsApp has also released a 'privacy checkup' feature. To access this, click on 'Privacy' and then 'Settings'. From there, you should see the option to start a privacy checkup at the very top of the menu. Clicking on 'start checkup' will enable you to manually adjust who can contact you, change how your personal info is shown by the app, add more privacy to your chats, and add more protection to your account. 

From 'choose who can contact you', you can customise how you will be added to WhatsApp groups. In this option, you can also set blocked contacts, who will be unable to reach you on WhatsApp. 

From 'control your personal info', you can choose who can view your profile photo and online status. You can also adjust the 'receipts' option here, i.e. turning on this option will let others see when you have viewed their messages. 

From 'add more privacy to your chats', you can set a default message timer, with which you can start new chats with disappearing messages set to a timer. From here, you can also turn on end-to-end encrypted backup, for which you will need to set a new password.

From 'add more protection to your account', you can set fingerprint lock and two-step verification to add extra security to your WhatsApp account. These security features are tried-and-trusted methods to reduce hacking attacks.