How many times have you been added to a WhatsApp group you didn’t want to belong to without your consent? This is something we have all experienced to a greater or lesser extent, especially during this time of year when holiday dinners, Secret Santa gifts, or summer get-togethers are approaching. However, the instant messaging app owned by Meta has a feature that allows you to control who can add you to a group without permission and who cannot.
Available for both Android and iOS, it is a privacy tool that allows you to restrict automatic entry into groups without needing to accept it first. It can be activated from the privacy settings within the app, allowing you to give access only to contacts, contacts with exceptions, or everyone.
Privacy in WhatsApp group chats
The instant messaging application WhatsApp, owned by the Meta group, is in the process of developing new tools and internal features aimed at protecting the user and the information they share within the app. Several changes in terms of security and privacy are being implemented to achieve this goal, and one of the most recent concerns the app’s group chats. How many times have you been added to a group without your consent? And even worse, how many times did you not want to be part of it but there was no turning back?
This is precisely what the app aims to address with its new feature: a privacy option that allows you to control who can add you to WhatsApp groups. With this tool available in the privacy settings, the intention is to avoid spam and unwanted groups. With this privacy setting, you can choose between allowing any user to add you, only your contacts to do so, or limiting it by selecting which of your contacts cannot add you. Through this, the possibility of being added to a group without first receiving an invitation that you have to manually accept will be restricted.
How to activate this privacy feature?
This feature is not well known by users, but it is easy to find in the privacy menu within the app. To access it, you just need to follow these steps:
- Open WhatsApp.
- Go to the Settings menu.
- Select the “Account” section.
- Enter “Privacy.”
- Look for the “Groups” option.
- Choose one of the three available settings:
- Everyone: anyone can add you.
- My contacts: only people you have saved.
- My contacts except…: manually select who cannot add you.
7. Save the changes.
Easy peasy!
More tools for group chats
The official WhatsApp blog highlights the latest improvements the app has added regarding group chats. Some of these changes include the online indicator to show how many people are active in the group at that moment, as well as the option to customize group notifications and choose whether to receive all alerts or only those in which the user is mentioned.
Planning tools have also been added, allowing events to be created directly from a chat or group and inviting other contacts, setting an end date, and enabling responses such as yes, no, or maybe to that event. With this measure, WhatsApp reminds users that they can have control over the privacy of their profile on the app, and that they are working to make this control and customization increasingly greater.