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WhatsApp adds option to let group admins decide who can join a chat

WhatsApp on Wednesday announced new features to enhance the group chat experience on its platform. With its latest update, the popular instant messaging app now lets admins decide who can join a group. In addition, it has become easier to check which groups you have in common with other contacts.

New features for WhatsApp groups

As announced by Meta in a blog post, today’s WhatsApp update brings new controls for group admins. For example, admins can choose to allow or deny a new member in a group chat when an invite link is available. “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,” said the company.

So now, even if someone has an access link to a group, that person may have to wait for approval before joining. But that’s not the only new feature coming to WhatsApp groups.

According to WhatsApp, it has also become easier to see which groups you have in common with your contacts. You can search for a contact and see a list of all the groups in which that person is also a member. Of course, this list only includes groups that you also participate in.

“Whether you’re trying to remember the name of a group you know you share with someone or you want to see the groups you’re both in, you can now easily search a contact’s name to see your groups in common,” Meta detailed.

More about WhatsApp

A few days ago, WhatsApp began rolling out voice support for posting status updates. The platform has also been working on a new Expiring Groups feature for specific occasions. In addition to Expiring Groups, WhatsApp has also been testing a new option to let users edit sent messages, similar to Telegram and iMessage.

As for the new features for group admins, WhatsApp says that they’ll start to be rolled out globally over the next few weeks. WhatsApp is available for free on the App Store. It requires an iPhone running iOS 12 or later.

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Avatar for Filipe Espósito Filipe Espósito

Filipe Espósito is a Brazilian tech Journalist who started covering Apple news on iHelp BR with some exclusive scoops — including the reveal of the new Apple Watch Series 5 models in titanium and ceramic. He joined 9to5Mac to share even more tech news around the world.

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