WhatsApp introduced many features to stop the oversharing of messages on its platform last year. One was limiting the number of contacts you can forward a message to at a time down to five. This year, the messaging app is bringing it down from five to just one.
The Facebook-owned subsidiary says that there has been a significant increase in the amount of forwarding recently. In a statement, the company says that some users feel overwhelmed by all the forwarding. This could also contribute to the spread of misinformation. In addition to that, WhatsApp also feels that slowing down the forwarding of messages will keep messages on the app more personal.
All this amounts to is an incremental change to what is currently already in place. But WhatsApp does claim that the number of forwarded messages dropped by 25% when the first limit of five was introduced. It’s likely that it is banking on this new limit of one will reduce it further.
In the meantime, we should all do our best to verify what we see before sharing them. This is especially so during these troubling times when people will be more susceptible to believing unverified claims.
(Source: WhatsApp)
