WhatsApp has been discovered to offer the ability for users to leave groups silently – without informing other members of their departure.
The new approach by the instant messaging app will make it a lot easier to leave bothersome and unwelcome groups that they were previously hesitant to leave because other members would be notified of their departure.
This is especially true in family groupings when you don’t want your siblings to realize you’ve left because of random “Good Morning” greetings or messages that need basic fact-checking.
When someone leaves a group, WhatsApp sends out an auto-generated notification. This notification is available to all group members and administrators.
WhatsApp introduced the ability to leave a group silently a few days ago when it detailed its Communities feature. However, no specific date for when it would be available to users has been announced.
“We’re also implementing the ability to secretly leave a group,” the program noted on its FAQ website, “so everybody in a group is not told in case somebody decide the topic is no longer for them.”
According to WABetaInfo, the screenshot used to announce the new feature was obtained from a latest WhatsApp Desktop beta. However, users of WhatsApp for Android and iOS are expected to see the change as well.
WhatsApp has been updating the way groups work on its platform for some time in order to improve communication across numerous users.
It announced an increase in the group size restriction from 256 to 512 members, as well as the option to respond to messages in groups with reaction emojis rather than inputting the text. WhatsApp just increased the number of people that can participate in group voice calls from eight to 32.
According to WhatsApp’s blog post, the increased group capacity is being rolled out “slowly” to users.
It could set the tone for the Communities feature, which aims to improve group discourse by allowing users to combine different groups under one roof.
Don’t miss important articles during the week. Subscribe to techbuild.africa weekly digest for updates.