WhatsApp is expanding a feature that lets you decide who invites you to group chats to all 1.5 billion users.
Whoever uses WhatsApp knows how easy it is to join group discussions without permission.
This is the reason why the Facebook-owned messaging giant introduced a function in April that allows select users to specify who can invite them to a group.
WhatsApp has three levels of privacy options for group invitations, which users can pick by navigating to the Settings menu in the app and pressing Account > Privacy > Groups. These three choices consist of:
Everyone: This setting permits any WhatsApp user to add you to a group.
My Contacts: This option allows any of your phone’s contacts to add you to a group. A WhatsApp user who is not in your phone’s contacts cannot add you to a group.
My Contacts Except: This option allows all of your phone’s contacts. But only those whom you specify, to add you to a group.
If you’re allowed to a group without one of the permissions, the admin must give you a WhatsApp invite. You have 72 hours to accept WhatsApp’s invitation.
WhatsApp’s new group privacy features will roll out to certain users today. Other users they can have it “in the coming days” if they’re using the latest iOS or Android version.
The initial launch in India gave users a “Nobody” option instead of “My contacts except…”, but this update gives consumers more control. “Select all” has the same effect as “Nobody.”
Anyone without authority to add you to a group chat must issue you a personal invite.