Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has unveiled a new WhatsApp feature aimed at giving admins more control over their group’s membership and improving group discoverability for users. This update allows admins to more efficiently manage group join requests and enables users to easily identify the groups they share with a particular contact.
The primary goal of this feature is to provide admins with better control over their group’s privacy. To achieve this, WhatsApp has introduced a simple tool that allows admins to decide who can join a group. When sharing an invite link or making a group joinable within a community, admins can now manage all join requests in one place. They can accept or reject a user’s request by clicking a checkmark or an “X” respectively.
Additionally, WhatsApp has introduced a feature that simplifies the process of finding common groups between users. By searching for a contact’s name, users can now view all the groups they share with that person. This feature can be useful in cases where users are trying to recall a specific group name or want to see the groups they have in common with someone.
These new features follow the launch of WhatsApp’s Communities, which offer larger, more structured discussion groups. Communities bring a range of new features to the platform, including admin controls, support for sub-groups and announcement groups, 32-person voice and video calls, larger-file sharing, emoji reactions, and polls. Supporting up to 1,024 users, Communities also maintain end-to-end encryption.
In an emailed press release, WhatsApp stated, “Last year, we rolled out Communities to help people get the most out of their groups on WhatsApp. Since launching, we’ve wanted to build even more tools for admins and users alike. Today we’re excited to roll out a few new changes we’ve made to make groups more manageable for admins and easier to navigate for everyone.”
The recently announced features will be rolled out globally in the coming weeks, further enhancing the user experience on WhatsApp’s platform.
