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WhatsApp for iOS launches group feature to allow up to 512 people – but not in Brazil

A couple of days ago, 9to5Mac reported that WhatsApp had finally released the ability to react to a message. Alongside this feature, the company is also updating to allow up to 512 people in a group and increasing the size limit of a file from 100MB to 2GB.

According to WhatsApp in a blog post, “one of the top requests we’ve consistently received is the option to add more people to a chat, so now we’re slowly rolling out the ability to add up to 512 people to a group.”

As always, the company highlights the importance of building a private, safe, and secure experience. The interesting part of this feature rolling out globally is that Brazilian users will have to wait a few months more. The company stated:

“Based solely on our long-term strategy for Brazil, this last functionality will only be implemented after being tested in other markets.”

As a matter of fact, with presidential elections coming in October, this is part of the Brazilian Superior Electoral Court’s attempt to prevent the spread of fake news and misinformation through groups as it occurs in other apps, such as Telegram.

In addition, WhatsApp users can now start sending files within the app of up to 2GB in size at a time, protected by end-to-end encryption. The company explains:

“This is an increase from the previous limit of 100MB and we think will be helpful for collaboration among small businesses and school groups. We recommend using WiFi for larger files and we’ll display a counter while uploading or downloading to let you know how long your transfer will take.”

What do you think of these features arriving on WhatsApp? Which one are you most excited to use? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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