The group chat is the last truly heavyweight institution of modern life. It’s one of the most reliable means of daily communication, used for just about anything from planning to catching up.
WhatsApp is counting over 3 billion users, and it’s a fair bet most of them are in at least one group chat; the platform has supported groups of up to 1,024 members since 2022.
An update that began rolling out on August 4 follows a run of group-focused releases earlier this year, including group message history, member tags, and event reminders. Taken together, it’s a clear signal of WhatsApp’s reliance on group chats as one of its defining features.
The platform’s latest update is designed to improve its usage, and it’s rolling out gradually. Here’s everything you need to know.
@all
Typing @all allows every member of the group to be notified, even the ones who muted the chat years ago. @all is designed to punch through and override the mute settings and notification preferences you set at chat level.
WhatsApp pitches this as a tool for the urgent stuff, like updates, changes, and last-minute cancellations. It has, however, also clearly anticipated the feature’s spam potential.
The spam safeguards thus work on two levels. In groups larger than 32 people, only admins can trigger @all, and the override itself has an off switch. You can also manually mute @all alerts entirely in your notification settings, a separate control from muting the chat itself. The 32-person threshold is the same cap WhatsApp applies to group calls. It’s the platform’s rough dividing line between a chat and a broadcast channel.
Polls
WhatsApp’s polling feature has been around since 2022 and is end-to-end encrypted like everything else on the platform. It is also, though, where many a group chat goes to stall. The poll fixes in the latest update are pragmatic.
You can now set an end time that automatically locks voting when it expires, giving the group a hard deadline to vote. Interestingly, you also have the option to hide voter names. Until now, WhatsApp polls were transparent by design, and everyone could see exactly who voted for what. Anonymizing votes now also exist inside an end-to-end encrypted system, where the whole architecture is built around verifying who sent what.
And you can now also edit a poll question within 15 minutes of posting it, which is the same grace window WhatsApp gives you to edit a regular message. Revolutionary stuff for the poll fiends among us.
Create Group Chats From Existing Groups
WhatsApp is formalizing the splinter chat. You can now whip up a new group chat from an existing one in a single tap, pulling members into a smaller group chat without having to manually add them one by one. The official use cases are surprises and side conversations that would otherwise clutter the main chat.
Usernames Are Coming
Away from group chats, WhatsApp also recently announced that usernames will launch later this year, allowing people to connect without sharing their phone numbers. The optional feature is designed as an added layer of privacy: Usernames can be changed or removed at any time and do not need to match your identity on another platform.
Reservations began rolling out in June, with eligible users able to claim a new name—or transfer an existing Facebook or Instagram handle—under the Account section in Settings. Users will also be able to add on a unique four-digit key before allowing someone can contact them.
WhatsApp says names associated with celebrities, public figures, and government bodies, including convincing imitations, will be reserved for their legitimate owners. The username land grab has officially begun.
This story was originally published by WIRED Middle East.