A man poses with a smartphone in front of displayed Whatsapp logo in this illustration September 14, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic - RC1740C10AC0
It’s official! The power to decide who can add you in a WhatsApp Group now lies within you as opposed to just Whatsapp group admins as it was in the past.
Earlier this year, We reported that WhatsApp was in the process of developing a tool that will prompt group admins to first send an invitation to users before adding them to their groups.
Read Also: Admins will soon have to seek permission before adding users to WhatsApp groups. WhatsApp on Wednesday confirmed that it is rolling out a new privacy setting that will help you decide who can add you to groups, preventing additions to those annoying WhatsApp groups by rogue admins in the middle of the night.
"WhatsApp groups continue to connect family, friends, co-workers, classmates and more. As people turn to groups for important conversations, users have asked for more control over their experience," the Facebook-owned instant messaging company said in a statement. To restrict joining of new groups on WhatsApp, there will be the specific privacy setting that can be accessed by going to Account > Privacy > Groups from the WhatsApp settings menu and then three distinct options will be available on the screen, namely Nobody , My Contacts , and Everyone .
If you select the Nobody option, you'll have to approve joining every WhatsApp group to which you're invited. My Contacts option will enable users you have in your address book to add you to groups. There will also be the Everyone option that won't add any restriction, in that anyone will be able to send you an invite or to add you to any Whatsapp group.
"With these new features, users will have more control over the group messages they receive," WhatsApp said.
In those cases, the person inviting users to a group will be prompted to send a private invite through an individual chat, giving them the choice of joining the group. Users will have three days to accept the invite before it expires.
These new privacy settings will begin rolling out to some users starting today and will be available worldwide in the coming weeks to those using the latest version of WhatsApp.