WhatsApp Messenger has recently rolled out a few new features for users including group video calling and media visibility for specific contacts. The messaging app from Facebook has also finally got its clearance from the National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI), the governing body for retail payments in the country.
Let’s take you through these three new features and how to use them.
Admin to Decide Who Sends Messages in Groups
WhatsApp, in its latest update, will let group admins control who can send messages in a group. The update is available for both Android and iOS platforms.
“Today, we’re launching a new group setting where only admins are able to send messages to a group,” WhatsApp said in a blog post.
The option to select who all can send messages in a group is available in the group settings menu and it allows admins to choose who can send messages among admins and participants.
A ‘Send Messages’ option has been made available in the group settings menu. Clicking on it opens two options – All Participants and Admins Only.
Here’s how to enable these Group Chat settings:
- Open Group Info by tapping on the group name
- Open Group Settings
- Select Send Messages, it will give you two options – All Participants and Admins Only
- Select the setting you’d like for your group
Group Calling
WhatsApp has rolled out a beta version of its Group Video Calling feature that was announced at Facebook's developer conference F8 earlier this year. The feature is available only to beta users (the program is currently full). With the group video call, WhatsApp also rolled out the beta version of group voice call as well.
With the group calling feature, you can call up to 3 people at once simultaneously, allowing 4 people to connect at once.
If you have WhatsApp version 2.18.189 installed on your phone and have signed up as a beta tester (too late for that now), you will be able to try this feature out.
However, the group calling feature is still in its development phase and didn’t work smoothly at first. However, when we tried the next day, it worked!
We were able to connect four people and the chat was surprisingly smooth, not once did it hang or did we witness any lag. We think that there was an issue with the app on the first day of rolling it out.
Here’s how to use it:
- Go to the contact’s chat
- Click the video call option.
- After you connect with your contact, an add contact icon will appear on the top right corner of the screen.
- Click the add icon and wait for the person to connect.
WhatsApp Payments
As the beta version of the feature is already being used by many, WhatsApp announced that it will be launching a full-fledged version of the service soon.
The messaging app from Facebook will partner with banks like ICICI, HDFC and Axis Bank to facilitate the transactions between users.
WhatsApp Payment was initially available to a limited number of users, as a part of a beta launch.
With WhatsApp payments, you can send money to anyone within your contacts given that they are also signed up for the service themselves.
As WhatsApp gets ready to roll out the service, we will get you ready to use the feature, here’s how:
1. Open the WhatsApp mobile app on your phone.
2. Click options (three vertical dots at the top right corner)
3. Click settings, you’ll see a Payments option.
- Click payments, the screen will load till the time it gets the list of banks.
- Choose your bank, it will ask you to verify your phone number linked with the bank account.
- Click verify via SMS, it will ask you for permission to make and manage phone calls, click allow.
- After loading, the app will show you the bank account linked with your phone number. It will show you the last two digits of your account number.
- Click on it to add the account.
- Click done and you’re ready to send money to your contacts – directly to their bank account.
- To send money to your contacts, click the attachment logo within the chat and click payment.
However, you can send money to only those contacts that have signed up for the service. WhatsApp, which has over 200 million users in India, will also provide support through e-mails and a toll-free number.
Media Visibility Feature
You can now toggle Media Visibility in WhatsApp as well for any specific contact or group.
The media visibility feature lets you decide if you want any of the media from a specific chat in your phone’s gallery. This feature is available to beta testers only for now.
Although this is not the first time WhatsApp has rolled out a media visibility feature (it was in the general settings menu), this update lets you do that for a particular chat/contact. However, the visibility of downloaded media content is visible within the app.
Here’s how you can set the media visibility on the latest version of WhatsApp, as it rolls out:
- Open WhatsApp
- Open the Chat/Group you Want to Set the Media Visibility for
- Click on their profile.
- Click on media visibility option, it will ask you if you want to save the media in your gallery – Default (yes), Yes and No.
- Choose whether you want to save the media in your gallery or not.
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