WhatsApp gives admins more control with new group features; check details here

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WhatsApp is rolling out two new features to its groups functionality, making it easier for people to see groups in common with others and giving admins more control over who can join a group, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced on March 21.

These features come a few months after WhatsApp rolled out Communities to support larger discussion groups within the messaging app in November last year.

In the past few months, WhatsApp mentioned that it has also rolled new updates including making groups larger, and giving admins the ability to delete messages sent in the groups they manage.

Zuckerberg said that admins will now be able to see all pending requests to join their group at a single place, thereby making it easier for them to decide who to let in.

When an admin chooses to make their group joinable in a community or share their group’s invite link, they now have more control over who can join.

"Groups are where people have some of their most intimate conversations and it’s important that admins are able to easily decide who can and cannot come in," the company said in a statement.

Besides this, WhatsApp will allow users to search a contact's name to see which groups they have in common with that particular contact.

The new features will start rolling out to users across the world over the next few weeks, the company said in a statement.

In February 2023, WhatsApp had also bolstered its ephemeral status feature that allows users to share text, photo, and video that disappear after 24 hours.

It has introduced the ability to record and share voice messages up to 30 seconds on WhatsApp status along with status reactions that will enable them to provide a quick and easy way to respond to status updates from their friends and close contacts.

For links shared on WhatsApp Status, the world's largest messaging app has also started showing a visual preview of the link content, thereby providing users a better idea of what the link is before they click, the company said at the time.