Now You Won’t Be Added to Random WhatsApp Groups Without Consent

The messaging platform is rolling out a Group Privacy feature so that users can choose which groups to join.

WhatsApp Groups have been reportedly used for peddling fake news. 

(Photo: iStockphoto)

It’s here folks! The power to decide who can add you in a WhatsApp Group and who can’t. Isn’t that what you’ve been crying out for?

Well, WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging platform, has finally heard your request and the feature is rolling out with its latest update to some users on Wednesday, and is likely to get a global release in the coming weeks.

Interestingly, we had first heard about this feature getting added to iOS via a WABetainfo report a few weeks back. WhatsApp understands the need to offer it for Android as well, since this OS caters to over 90 percent of the world’s mobile population.

The feature is available via WhatsApp privacy settings and ensures a user can filter as to who can send him/her Group invites on the platform.

Once you reject a Group invite, WhatsApp will notify the admin about it, who can then send a private invite to join the group separately. The user will have a three-day window to accept/reject the invite before it expires.

This ensures that users won’t have to have join groups which they aren’t interested in. With this feature, people getting added to random groups of political parties in India, can outrightly say no.

Change Group Invitation Settings

• Go to Settings on WhatsApp from the hamburger menu on top right
• Click on Accounts and from there open Privacy on the app
• Over there select Groups and you’ll be able to decide who can add you
• You can select between Everyone, My Contacts or Nobody

(Photo: WhatsApp)

The popular messaging app will soon get dark mode option, which has now rolled to select users via the beta version. The Android version of the app also lets users lock their messages with a fingerprint scanner.

On Tuesday, WhatsApp announced that it has partnered with local organisations in India to start a Checkpoint Tipline, which can be used to verify if a forwarded news/message on the platform is credible or not.