In addition to private chats with a single contact, group chats happen to be a particularly popular WhatsApp feature. These group chats provide the opportunity to plan an event with friends simultaneously or simply make an appointment. However, a problem arises when you add a new person to an existing group. The developers behind this insanely popular instant messaging app now want to improve this.
WhatsApp Tests a New Feature for Group Chats
One problem with group chats is how new members can only view messages that were written after they joined the group. WhatsApp does not allow one to peek into the past. This means new members are often somewhat lost because they lack the context of old conversations. To provide such context, the creators are now testing a new function for group users.
As WABetaInfo reported, existing group members can choose to share up to 100 past messages from their chat history when adding new contacts. What does this mean? If you have been invited as a new contact, the person inviting you can help you in the future. This may eliminate the need to repeat questions that have already been answered. Instead, you can simply read for yourself.
For new members, the old WhatsApp messages will be displayed in a different color. Existing members will also receive a notification that the chat history has been shared with a new contact.
According to the report, WhatsApp will only share messages from the last 14 days upon request. For example, if 60 messages have been published in a group over the last 2 weeks and 40 other posts in the time before that, only a maximum of 60 messages will be shared with the new member. This is meant to limit the distribution of outdated information.
New Feature is Disabled by Default
Group users must explicitly activate the new feature when inviting new members. The instant messenger still does not share old messages by default. WhatsApp will also ask you again the first three times whether you really want to share old conversations. For the fourth time, this new security prompt is omitted, as the developers assume that you would know what you are doing by now.
Users of WhatsApp Android beta can already test the new feature out. When will it be available for all users? The answer remains unknown. The developer behind WhatsApp tends to always take a lot of time to try its new options out, ensuring there are as few hiccups as possible upon rollout. Early hints of the function described here were already provided in August 2023.
