WhatsApp is officially rolling out a new update that gives admins even more control over the privacy of their groups and communities. Specifically, the new update will give admins the ability to approve or reject pending participants as well as seeing common groups with contacts.
With this update, admins are able to decide who is able to join a group. This includes those who request to join through both invite links or a joinable group in a community. This ensures that no bad actors or unwelcome individuals can join a group without the permission of one of the admins put in charge.
Secondly, WhatsApp users will be able to view all the groups they have in common with any individual contact. Just search a contact’s name and the app will show the groups that you are both participants in.
These new features were spotted in the beta versions of the app just earlier this month, so this is quite a fast turnaround to a stable roll out. The update is gradually rolling out globally to users over the coming weeks, so do not worry if you do not see the update just yet.
WhatsApp has been releasing plenty of features to improve the user experience for using groups. Just a few months ago, WhatsApp quadrupled the limit for participants in a group video call to 32 people, bringing it in line with group voice calls. To ensure that such a busy video call does not get to chaotic, users can also mute individual users during the call.
Groups also received tools such as in-chat polls, 2GB limit for file sharing, creating call links, and for admins to be able to delete individual messages. Of course, one of the most highly-requested features was also launched by WhatsApp last year, which is the ability to silently exit groups without having to worry about all participants being notified.
(Source: WhatsApp)
