Hate them or love them, you’ve probably been in at least 10 groups at a time. Groups have been an important part of the WhatsApp experience, whether it’s family members discussing family issues and connecting across the globe or childhood friends staying in touch over the years. Bands, event organizers and crews! There are also people coming together in groups on WhatsApp like new parents looking for support, students organizing study sessions. Many Artists have personalised groups to engage more directly with their audiences. If you can’t imagine a better update since the mute notifications for one year option we’ve got news for you. Today, courtesy of the WhatsApp Blog we’ll share some interesting updates that the Facebook-owned application has made to the Groups’ function.
Group description
No more asking ‘What’s this group for?’ A short blurb can now be found under the group info that allows you to set the purpose, guidelines, or topics for the group. When a new person joins a group, the description will show up right at the top of the chat.
Admin controls
In group settings, there’s now a control that allows admins to restrict who can change the group’s subject, icon, and description.
Group catch up
When you’ve been away from a group chat, quickly catch up on messages that mention or reply to you by tapping on a new @ button that appears at the bottom right corner of the chat.
Participant search
Find anyone in a group by searching for participants on the group info page.
This is some bonus info, ever been kicked out of a group you’ve started? The pain, the horror, oh the shade! Now Admins can remove admin permissions of other group participants, and group creators can no longer be removed from the group they started! Big whoop! In case you hadn’t noticed, users can’t be repeatedly added to groups they’ve left.
Although we’re not sure when these are going live; Kenyan Tech Blog Techweez reported in addition that WhatsApp is also working on a group calls feature for both video calls and audio calls as well as a media visibility option, yup! No more unwanted memes and surprisingly loud variations of porn popping up in your gallery.
The rest of these features are currently available for Android and iPhone users.
Have you used any of these features? Let us know via Facebook or Twitter.
