Many social media platforms have integrated the “story” feature, such as Instagram and WhatsApp. Stories are an excellent way of sharing images and information with your friends that then disappear after 24 hours. WhatsApp story popularity has been increasing since it has been integrated into the platform. However, sometimes you may be wondering why your status cannot be viewed by others or you cannot see the status of someone in your contacts at all. This article will outline how to fix WhatsApp status not showing.
Situation 1: WhatsApp Status Not Showing to Others
If you are in a situation where you post a status, but your friends and family are not able to view it, this section of the guide will demonstrate how you can resolve this. You can check who sees your status by going on it and then swiping up.
Check Who Can View Your Status
The first step you can take to resolve this issue is to check who can view your status. WhatsApp statuses have a feature that enables you to prevent some people from viewing your story. However, if you have accidentally prevented everyone from seeing your status, then you could be facing the issue outlined earlier. Therefore, to check who can view your WhatsApp statuses on Android:
- Open WhatsApp and go into the “Status” tab.
- Tap on the vertical ellipses and choose “Status privacy”.
- Choose “My contacts” from the options.
This will allow your contacts to see your status whenever you post it, however, it will not affect a previously posted status. Therefore, if no one can see a previously posted status, delete that one and repost it with the adjusted settings.
The method to do this on iOS varies slightly:
- Open WhatsApp and in the Settings section, tap on “Account”.
- Then, choose “Privacy” and tap on “Status”.
- Choose “My Contacts” from the list of options.
Add the Person to Your Contacts
One other issue you may be facing is that a specific person is not able to see your status even though the settings are on “My Contacts”. The main cause of this would be that the person attempting to view your story is not in your contacts. To resolve this issue, add that person to your contacts via the contacts application, ensuring their phone number is inputted correctly.
Situation 2: WhatsApp Status not Showing to Me
The next situation is when you are not seeing someone’s status despite them uploading it. There are a few reasons for this, such as an outdated WhatsApp version or you are being excluded from viewing their story. The methods to resolve this situation are listed below.
Update WhatsApp
If you are not seeing the status section on your WhatsApp at all, this means you are using an outdated version of WhatsApp and it needs to be updated before you will be able to see anyone’s status. Updating WhatsApp is simple; just head into your app store and then find WhatsApp. Then, choose to update. Open the application once it has updated and check if you now have a status section. If you are not able to update WhatsApp on your device, it could either be that you do not have enough storage space remaining on your device to update WhatsApp. Alternatively, this could be happening because your device’s operating system is outdated, and the latest version of WhatsApp cannot run on it.
Check If That Person Is in Your Contacts
The person whose story you cannot view may not be in your contacts. You can only view someone’s story if they are in your contacts so the first check you should do is to check if that person is in your contacts. To verify this, see if you can send that person a message via WhatsApp. If you can, that means that person is in your contacts. However, if you cannot find that person in your contacts, then add them by creating a new contact.
Check If That Person Has Added You to Their Contacts
Another cause of this situation is that you are not added to the contacts of that person. Since WhatsApp status privacy settings only allow your contacts to view your status, you must be in that person’s contacts to view their story. Therefore, try messaging or asking that person if they have added you to their contacts since you can communicate with someone via WhatsApp even if they are not in your contacts if they have messaged you first. If you are in the contacts of that person, then attempt the next step.
Clear WhatsApp Cache (Android)
WhatsApp cache stores some of the most common chats you use and the statuses you have viewed previously. If you have never cleared WhatsApp’s cache, then it could be preventing you from viewing any other statuses due to storage limitations. To clear WhatsApp cache on your Android phone:
- Open Settings and go to “Apps and Notifications”.
- Locate WhatsApp and then choose “storage” in this section.
- Pick “Clear Cache” and then open WhatsApp.
Delete and Reinstall WhatsApp
The final step you can take is to delete and reinstall WhatsApp on your smartphone. This will help remove any bugs that are present on the application on your device. Before you uninstall WhatsApp, we would highly recommend you create a backup so that you can restore it when you reinstall WhatsApp. To make a backup:
- Go into WhatsApp settings and choose “Chats”.
- Go to “Chat backup” and choose to “Back Up” your data.
Then, uninstall WhatsApp on your device. You can choose to restart your phone before reinstalling although it is not necessary. Open your app store, such as the Google Play Store and install WhatsApp. Log in to your WhatsApp account by using the same phone number as you previously used and then restore from the backup.
Conclusion
Let us know in the comments below if you can now view WhatsApp statuses after following the steps outlined in this article. We understand the importance of communicating via statuses and some events are advertised via statuses which is why this guide was made. If you are experiencing other issues with WhatsApp, browse the many guides we have or let us know in the comments too.
