What you need to know
- New updates have arrived this week for group calls on Meta-owned WhatsApp.
- Users can mute or message specific people during a call.
- WhatsApp also announces new privacy options that are rolling out to users.
WhatsApp has some new updates for its group calls that were announced today. The Meta-owned messaging platform now allows users to mute or message specific people on a group call. During the call, participants will also see a banner or an indicator suggesting a person has joined the call offscreen, which WhatsApp states will be beneficial during large meetings.
William Cathcart, Head of WhatsApp at Meta, has now announced new features through his Twitter account.
Some new features for group calls on @WhatsApp: You can now mute or message specific people on a call (great if someone forgets to mute themselves!), and we’ve added a helpful indicator so you can more easily see when more people join large calls. pic.twitter.com/fxAUCAzrsyJune 16, 2022
The ability to mute others in a group call comes in handy on one of the best messaging platforms, particularly when the participants forget to mute themselves. Not long ago, WhatsApp released new abilities to its groups that included adding up to 32 people on a single call. Likewise, the ability to add up to 512 people in a single group — a significant jump from the previous 256 members. WABetaInfo notes that this option to mute somebody on a call is not just limited to the person who made the call — other participants would also be able to mute anyone during a call.
Muting others on WhatsApp appears relatively easy; users have to select the respective individual during the call, and they then get options to either mute the participant or send an individual message.
In addition to these new features for group calls, WhatsApp has also announced new privacy features on the messaging platform. Users can now select individuals from their contacts list and choose to either allow or block them from seeing their profile photo, about section, and last seen status. This appears to be a convenient feature for people to hide from businesses, banking accounts, or rather annoying people on WhatsApp.
🔒 To further protect your privacy online, we’re rolling out new options to your privacy control settings 🔒Now you can select who from your contact list can see your Profile Photo, About, and Last Seen status. For more information follow this link: https://t.co/UGMCx2n70hJune 15, 2022
The new features on the messaging platform have begun rolling out to users across iOS and Android platforms. Users can enable the features on their WhatsApp accounts soon since it could be an incremental rollout. Make sure you are running the latest version of the app.
