WhatsApp is rolling out a new, tougher security setting to protect users from cyberattacks

Days after Meta was sued over allegedly false privacy claims surrounding its chat app WhatsApp, the company has rolled out a new setting to protect users from cyberattacks.

The feature, called Strict Account Settings, adds restrictions such as automatically blocking media and attachments from unknown senders, and silencing calls from unknown numbers. Under this setting, link previews are turned off, and the setting to block a large number of unknown messages is also turned on.

When someone turns this option on, by default, two-step verification is turned on along with security notifications that alert the person when the code of the person they’re talking to changes.

WhatsApp also restricts your last seen and online presence, and the profile picture, details, and links on your profile are locked to your contacts only. If you enable the new restricted layer of protection, only your contacts (or pre-selected people from your contacts) will be able to add you to groups.

The company said this “lockdown-style” feature will be rolled out in the coming weeks and will be useful to journalists and public figures.

“Strict Account Settings is an optional lock-out-style security feature that, when enabled, reduces your exposure to cyber attack by limiting functionality. Your account is locked with more private settings, and your conversations with others outside of your contacts will be limited,” the company’s description reads.

Users can turn this setting on by going to Settings > Privacy > Advanced and then turning on Strict Account Settings. Meta said that users can only change this setting from their primary device and not from a companion platform like WhatsApp for Web or Windows.

The timing of the offering comes as a WhatsApp lawsuit accuses Meta of making false claims about WhatsApp’s security protections. The lawsuit alleges that the company “stores, analyzes, and has access to virtually all of WhatsApp users’ ‘private’ communications.”

WhatsApp chief Will Cathcart rejected the claims and said it was a “baseless, headline-grabbing lawsuit.”