WhatsApp has been testing new features for WhatsApp groups since past few months now. Some of the features have already been rolled out to Android and iPhone users, while some were still in beta, until now that is, as WhatsApp has finally announced all the new features for WhatsApp groups like group description, admin controls and more. Let’s take a look at each one of them.
Group Description
The Group Description feature was rolled out by WhatsApp for Android users back two months ago, however, it has been officially announced for Android as well as iPhone users. With the Group Description feature, group members can add a short description of their group which shows up at the top of the chat when a new person joins the group.
Admin Controls
In a bid to give more power to group admins, WhatsApp rolled out the ‘Restrict Group‘ feature for Android users on beta channel earlier this month. But, it’s now available to all the users on Android as well as iPhone. This feature allows group admins to decide who can change the group info and who cannot. This includes group’s name, icon and description.
Admins can control this by heading over to the Group Info > Group Settings > Edit group info. There they will find two options – ‘All participants‘ and ‘Only admins‘. Choosing ‘Only admins’ will only allow the group admins to change the group’s name, icon and description, whereas, choosing ‘All participants’ will allow all members of the group to change these details.
Dismiss as admin
In addition to announcing the ‘Restrict Group’ feature, WhatsApp has also announced the ‘Dismiss as admin‘ feature. With this feature, the original admin (that is the creator of the group) can now revoke admin rights of other admins of the group without having to kick them off the group and add back again. Moreover, WhatsApp now also prevents the creator of the group from being removed from the group by other admins.
Participant Search
The Participant Search feature is self-explanatory. With this feature, you can quickly search for participant members of a group by heading over to the Group Info section and tapping on the Search Icon (magnifying glass icon) above the list of participants.
Group catch up
As a part of this feature, a new ‘@’ button will appear in the bottom-right corner of the group chat whenever you have been mentioned in a message in a group or someone has replied to your message. Tapping on this ‘@’ button will take you to those messages to help you quickly read and reply to them.
Well, in addition to all the features mentioned above, WhatsApp has also announced a new feature that prevents group admins from repeatedly adding users to groups that they have left before multiple times. This one’s certainly going to bring in a huge relief to those who just don’t want to be a part of certain groups but had no way of getting rid of them.
All the aforementioned features are now available for Android and iPhone users. If you don’t see them yet, make sure you are using the latest version of WhatsApp.
