WhatsApp has become one of the most popular apps in the UK for keeping in touch with friends, family and colleagues thanks to its ease of use and the fact it is cross-platform so it doesn’t matter if you have an iPhone or an Android phone.

Whether it’s photos from the family holiday or a chaotic group chat that you might have secretly muted, we end up taking for granted that our messages are secure on the Meta-owned platform. WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted by default, which means only you and the sender or recipient can read them.

That makes it very difficult indeed for hackers or criminals to successfully intercept messages, but in the latest free update coming to the app, WhatsApp is acknowledging that some of its users want extra confidence that their communications on the app will be permanently away from prying eyes.

WhatsApp has announced it is rolling out a new free feature in the coming weeks to all users called ‘strict account settings’. When it arrives on your phone, you’ll be able to flick a toggle and turn it on.

“Strict account settings is an advanced security feature that turns on privacy and security controls to help protect accounts from sophisticated cyber attacks,” WhatsApp says.

“At WhatsApp, we think you should be able to have a private conversation online, just like you would in-person. We will always defend that right to privacy for everyone, starting with default end-to-end encryption. But we also know that a few of our users – like journalists or public-facing figures – may need extreme safeguards against rare and highly-sophisticated cyber attacks.”

When you turn the new setting on, link previews are automatically turned off on all chats, and the ‘Block unknown account messages’ option is switched on, largely stopping unsolicited messages from anyone who isn’t in your contacts on your phone.

This new setting also enables two-step verification that requires a six-digit PIN for extra security, and security notifications are turned on. The app will also encourage you to turn on end-to-end encrypted backups. By default, the backups of your chats in iCloud on iPhone and Google Drive on Android are not encrypted, even though the messages within them are. Turning this on can only add to your messaging security.

Not only that, strict account settings also restricts your last seen and online statuses to your contacts only, along with your profile photo, About details and any profile links.

Finally, only your contacts or “pre-established, more-selective list of people” can add you to a new WhatsApp group chat, meaning you can’t be flung into a chat just because someone might have your number somehow, or has guessed it.

To see if you have the new strict account settings option, on WhatsApp tap on Settings > Privacy > Advanced and look for strict account settings. If it’s there, you’ll be able to turn it on straight away.