Editorial Staff
Since last year, the most popular messenger WhatsApp Messenger has been introducing new controls and safety features in the attempt to protect its platform from the massive spread of misinformation and rumors and, at the same time, in order to provide the one billion users with more authority over their WhatsApp accounts and the content they’re exposed to daily.
Recently, the developers of WhatsApp promised to keep on introducing new controls features in 2019 so that the messenger can maintain his status as the top messaging app. By the start of April, WhatsApp announced that the messenger is now flaunting newer group features that let the user control who can add him to group chats. The new group-controlling feature is mainly designed and implemented in order to fight the spread of misinformation on the viral messenger which has led to some fatal consequences in 2018.
The new WhatsApp feature is, reportedly, going to give the user the ability to limit the number of contacts who can add him to general group chats; so, with the debut of the new group-controlling feature, the user is enabled to prevent any one who is not on his WhatsApp contact list from adding him to random chat groups.
Group chats can indeed be a hotspot for rumors and misinformation which can lead to some disturbances in some communities – like what happened in India last year. The user can now limit the number of groups he’s involved in by denying any contact the ability to add him to any group. WhatsApp groups have also been used to carry out other tasks, such as adding loads of WhatsApp users to politically-driven groups without their official approval. Now, thankfully, any WhatsApp customer can choose carefully what chat groups he’s a part of. However, even if the user of the popular messenger prevents random groups add, he can still receive private invitations to some groups.
The new WhatsApp Messenger groups feature is, in fact, a part of a full package that developers of the messenger are releasing step by step in the attempt to fully protect the WhatsApp platform from the wide spread of fake news and information that has taken place massively last year. Whatsapp has also limited the times for forwarding any message – to only five times – and any forwarded message is marked, so that the WhatsApp user is aware of authentic and inauthentic content.
The private group invitations can be declined which will indeed help in lessening the amount of unnecessary WhatsApp groups that are created for nonsense or sabotaging reasons. The new groups feature will be rolled out to all of the WhatsApp audience in the next few weeks and can be accessed through the privacy settings of the messenger.