The about or profile info you set on WhatsApp is visible to all your contacts who have your phone number saved in their address book. Anyone in your contacts can see your profile photo, about text, and last seen status if you have not disabled them. You can control who gets to see your last seen and profile photo in privacy settings, but the about text will be visible to all contacts by default.
What is the “About” on WhatsApp?
The about section on WhatsApp allows you to set a short text to describe yourself, your interests, mood, status or anything else you like. It appears right below your name in your profile that a contact can access when viewing your chat details. The about info can contain emojis and text up to 139 characters.
Along with the profile photo and the last seen status, the about text helps identify you to your WhatsApp contacts and provides additional context beyond just your name and phone number.
Who can view your About info by default?
By default, any contact who has your phone number saved in their address book can see your About info when they view your chat details in WhatsApp. There is no setting to limit visibility of the About text specifically.
This means anyone in your contacts can immediately see whatever you have set as your About text when they select your chat.
Exceptions
There are two exceptions when your contacts may not be able to see your About even if they have your number saved:
- You have blocked that contact
- That contact has deleted your number or their chat with you
In these cases, they will not have access to your profile and About section at all.
Can you hide your About from specific contacts?
Unlike the Last Seen status and profile photo privacy, there is no built-in option in WhatsApp to hide your About text from specific contacts.
Your About info is either visible to all your contacts, or none of them if you delete it. You cannot select individual contacts to hide it from.
Workarounds
If you wish to restrict certain contacts from seeing your About, you have a couple of options:
- Delete the contact from your address book
- Block the contact
- Ask the contact to delete your number or the chat with you
These are not ideal solutions if you still need to chat with those contacts normally on WhatsApp. But they can prevent those specific people from accessing your About section.
Does your About show up on WhatsApp search results?
No, your About info does not show up if someone searches for your number on WhatsApp or clicks on your profile from a group where both of you are members.
The About text only becomes visible when a contact who has your number saved opens your chat details. It will not be displayed to strangers searching your number.
Can you see who views your About on WhatsApp?
There is no way to detect specifically who has viewed your About text on WhatsApp.
Unlike profile photo views, WhatsApp does not notify you when a contact reads your About section. You have no record of who exactly has accessed it.
Indicators
Some indirect indicators that a contact may have read your About include:
- Seeing “Last seen recently” or exact last seen time on that contact
- Noticing the blue ticks after your last sent message to them
- Observing that the contact has updated your name in their phone
But these are not definitive signs, so you have no sure way of telling who saw your About text and who didn’t.
Does About info take up storage space?
No, the About text does not take up any storage space on your phone or account. It is just a small snippet of text saved on WhatsApp’s servers.
Unlike photos, videos and other media you exchange on WhatsApp, your About info does not count towards your storage usage.
You can write a long About text without worrying about filling up storage. The length is capped at 139 characters so it cannot get too large.
Is the About section available on WhatsApp Web/Desktop?
Yes, you can view and edit your About info not just on the mobile apps but also on the WhatsApp Web and Desktop versions accessed from a computer.
When you update your About text on one device, it automatically syncs across WhatsApp on all platforms.
Your contacts will be able to see the updated About from their phones, WhatsApp Web or Desktop as long as they have your number saved.
Can your About be seen on deleted messages?
If you or the recipient has enabled disappearing messages for a chat, your About text will not be shown once those messages are deleted after the expiration time is up.
So if a contact could previously see your About but the chat is now under disappearing messages, they will no longer have access to your About section.
The About info requires having an existing chat history to be visible. If messages are set to delete, the About vanishes with them.
Does the About show with your number on Truecaller?
No, your WhatsApp About text does not appear on Truecaller or similar contact lookup apps and services along with your phone number.
These apps pull basic profile data from your device address book and social accounts. WhatsApp About info is end-to-end encrypted and not accessible to external services.
So your About description remains private to your WhatsApp contacts only and does not get exposed to wider reverse lookup services.
Can police or authorities see your WhatsApp About?
Generally no, law enforcement cannot directly view your About text on WhatsApp due to end-to-end encryption.
Without access to your physical phone, it is very difficult for your About info to be revealed to police or government authorities.
However, nothing you share on WhatsApp is 100% inaccessible. With a court order and assistance from WhatsApp’s parent company Meta, officials may be able to decrypt and access account information including About text in extreme criminal cases.
But this would require significant legal procedures and technical resources. For regular civil or investigation purposes, your About text should remain private.
Is the About info encrypted?
Yes, your About text is encrypted end-to-end just like all other WhatsApp messages and data.
It is not stored as plain text on WhatsApp’s servers. The content is only encrypted and decrypted on your device and your contact’s device.
So no one in between, including WhatsApp itself, can access your plain text About info. Only the people you message can read it.
Can you use special formatting in About text?
WhatsApp has limited formatting options for the About section. You can include:
- Emojis
- New lines
- Links (clickable only on Android and desktop)
Bold, italic, underline and other text formatting is not supported. You also cannot use bullet points or numbered lists.
Paragraph breaks by pressing Enter/Return do not work either – your About will appear as a continuous string of text without formatting.
Is there an About section for groups?
Yes, when you create a group or visit its info page, there is a section to add a group description or About text just like your personal profile.
This group About is visible to all current members of the group. New members can see it when they join.
Only the admins can edit the group About text. Other members cannot change it.
Can you search within About text?
There is no straightforward way to search for keywords or phrases within your contacts’ About info on WhatsApp.
You can only view the About texts one by one from each contact’s profile. WhatsApp does not index About content for searching.
You can try searching your whole chat history with a contact if you remember them mentioning specific words in their About previously.
Is your About info secure if your phone is stolen?
If someone steals your phone, they can see your About text only if they are able to unlock and access WhatsApp on your device.
As long as you have screen lock enabled with a strong password or biometric authentication like fingerprint, your About info will remain protected.
Enable WhatsApp screen lock for additional security. Also set up two-step verification. Together these will prevent intruders from entering WhatsApp and viewing your About if they steal your phone.
DoesAbout info sync across non-WhatsApp devices?
No, your About text does not sync to non-WhatsApp devices or services like iCloud or Google Drive.
It is stored in WhatsApp’s encrypted databases only accessible to the app itself on your phones, Web and Desktop versions.
So you cannot view or recover your About from anywhere outside of WhatsApp on that linked number.
Can your About be deleted by others?
No, other WhatsApp users have no way to directly delete or modify your About info.
Only you can edit or remove the About associated with your number on WhatsApp.
Indirectly, someone can delete their chat with you, or block you, which removes their access to view your About. But they cannot directly change your About text itself.
Can you set different About text for different contacts?
There is no feature to configure separate About info for specific contacts on WhatsApp.
Your About text will be the same for all your contacts. There is no per-contact customization option.
To show different info to certain contacts, you would have to edit your main About each time before chatting with them.