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Whatsapp is Adding Private Replies in Group Chats
WhatsApp has received another great update for its Beta Version.
How to Private Reply in Group Chats?
Using the feature is simple. All you need to do is select the message you wish to reply to, then tap the three dots at the top of the chat and tap on “Reply Privately”. This will open up a private chat window where you can only talk with one contact.
The new feature was revealed by WABetaInfo on Twitter. They are well known for sharing new features and additions to WhatsApp.
Also, for groups where only the admins are allowed to send messages, users will be able to privately reply to their messages using this feature. This will also improve the overall user experience for those groups as well.
What to do If you haven’t received the Private Reply Feature update?
As mentioned earlier, the feature is only available in WhatsApp beta, version 2.18.335 to be exact. Also, this is only available for Android users. iOS and web versions of WhatsApp haven’t received the update yet.
WhatsApp is also getting ads pretty soon. The stories/status area will be getting ads, for now, individual or group chats won’t show ads for now.
WhatsApp Alert! A Look At All The New Features
WhatsApp seems to be on a roll as far as providing users with new features is concerned. According to the company, new features will be available on Android and iOS smartphones from Wednesday, May 16 onward.
Facebook-owned chatting platform WhatsApp seems to be on a roll as far as providing users with new features is concerned. According to the company, new features will be available on Android and iOS smartphones from Wednesday, May 16 onward. Users can expect four important changes in their WhatsApp experience:
Group Discussion
‘Group Description’ was actually rolled out in March this year for Android and iOS platform. Through this, users can add a new description for the group. Everytime a new user joins a group, the description will be showcased right on top of the chat. Such a feature can come handy for office groups who have created the conversation with a defined purpose in mind.
Better Admin Control
The chatting platform is now equipped with better Admin controls. One can access the new set of controls through the ‘Settings’ option. Admins have now been given the freedom to restrict who can change the group’s subject, icon, and description. Another feature called, ‘Group Catch Up’ feature is expected to allow users to get quickly updated with messages which they might have missed in a group.
Search
There’s a participant ‘Search’ feature which allows users to look for anyone in the group by simply typing their names. Apart from this, admins can also remove admin permissions of other group participants. In addition to this, group creators can no longer be removed from the group that they start.
Group Video Calling
At the recently-conducted F8 conference, Facebook announced that WhatsApp will soon get a Group ‘Video calling’ feature, with up to four people in a single call.
Neeraj Arora, a 39-Year-Old IIT Alumnus, Could Be the Next WhatsApp CEO
For those of you who don’t know, Neeraj is one of the key persons behind WhatsApp’s enormous growth. The 39-year-old is an IITian from Delhi. and has extensive experience of working with some of the top tech companies and as well as his long association with WhatsApp are fetching him the role of WhatsApp CEO.
WhatsApp Beta Now Lets Admins Control Who Can Change Group Info
WhatsApp has released a new beta update (version 2.18.132) for Android and iOS, which comes with a restrict group feature. It allows an admin to prevent regular group members from editing group info, which includes the group title, description or image.
Select the Group you want to make changes (you need to be the Group Admin). Go the Group info -> Group Settings -> You see two options Edit Group info and Edit Group Admins.
Once the ‘Only admins’ option is activated, regular members will see an error message if they try to edit a group’s name, description or image.
WhatsApp Android Beta Now Lets You Download Your Data Report
To meet European Union’s GDPR guidelines, WhatsApp today starting testing its ‘request info’ tool with Android beta users. This enables you to request a copy of your personal info it has collected on you.
Scroll for Video
To download your report, go to Settings > Account to find a new ‘Request account info’ option. There you’ll see a ‘Request report’ button, which on clicking will send over your report within the next couple hours.
WhatsApp stores many details such as the phone number, IP address, profile picture, contacts list, and whether you’ve opted to share your data on Facebook.
This feature is currently under testing and will roll out to users over the next few weeks
Video: WhatsApp Now Lets You Download Your Data Report
WhatsApp Introduces ‘High Priority Notifications’ Feature in Beta
According to a recent report from WABetaInfo, the latest beta update for WhatsApp (v2.18.117) brings a new High Priority notifications feature which pins all priority notifications at the top of the notifications center. The new feature can be enabled from within the Notifications tab on the app and it works as expected.
A separate report highlights a new feature released in the latest stable update for WhatsApp which will allow group admins to demote other admins without removing them from the group.
The feature can be accessed from the Group Info tab on the app, however, it doesn’t allow admins to demote the creator of the group.
WhatsApp Now Has 1.5 Billion Monthly Active Users
The world’s most popular messaging app, WhatsApp, has added 200 million new users over the last six months and now has 1.5 billion active monthly users. Facebook Inc. revealed this information in the latest earnings call for Q4 2017, where it also announced that users share almost 60 billion messages on WhatsApp each day.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg also noted the popularity of WhatsApp status, which now has 300 million daily users, is nearly double the number of users on Snapchat. Further, it is expected that the number of users will grow more rapidly as WhatsApp now has a dedicated app for businesses.
[Update: January 14, 2018]
WhatsApp tests latest update ‘Dismiss As Admin’ for group chats
WhatsApp launched new update called ‘Dismiss As Admin’ for group chats in the beta version of its smartphone app for initial testing before introducing the feature entirely.
Dismiss As Admin will allow the users to practically dismiss the group chat admin. It will be able to demote the administrator of the group chat to standard group chat participant.
People will also be able to promote themselves as group chat admins in order to take complete control of the conversation.
With this new update, if an individual is not happy with the performance of the group administrator, then it can challenge their admin privileges.
Android users can avail the aforementioned WhatsApp update, according to WABetaInfo. For this purpose, they will have to sign up for the beta version of the messaging app.
It is worth mentioning that WhatsApp also has a feature called Restricted Groups, in which only the admin can send messages while participants are only there to view whatever is being posted.
This feature is currently in testing mode and will not be available to all users.
See Also: How to Read WhatsApp Messages Secretly? Here is the quickest tested way.
[Upadte: January 10, 2018]
WhatsApp Android (Beta) Allows You To Switch Between Voice and Video Calls
WhatsApp now allows its Android Beta users to directly switch between audio and video calls without the need of disconnecting the call.
The call switching feature is really handy for someone who is living in an area with a poor internet connection as it allows users to directly switch between voice and video calls depending on the speed of their connection.
The feature is currently available for all Android devices which are running Android 6.0 or above and are on the WhatsApp beta build number 2.18.1 and newer. If you satisfy the requirements and still haven’t received this feature, open the Settings page. Here, first force close WhatsApp and then relaunch it to get the feature working.
However, do remember that the feature is still in its beta and for it to work, callers on both sides must be running the beta version of WhatsApp.
[Update: January 04, 2018]
WhatsApp Users Sent ‘Record Number’ of Messages on New Year’s Eve
According to a recent statement from popular instant messaging app WhatsApp, a record number of messages have been sent on new year’s eve (2018).
Globally, WhatsApp users sent over 75 billion messages on New Year’s Eve, of which 13 billion were images and 5 billion were videos. The messaging platform managed to hit these numbers despite the global outage at midnight on New Year’s Eve which lasted for over two hours.
The service is used by over 1.2 billion people worldwide, with over 200 million users in India alone.
“New Year’s Eve was WhatsApp’s biggest messaging day ever, closing out a successful year for the company that included the introduction of several new features,” the company said.
If we talk about India, Indian users sent a whopping 20 billion messages on New Year’s Eve, shattering the previous record of 14 billion messages sent on New Year’s Eve last year.
[Update: January 01, 2018]
WhatsApp Served With Legal Notice Over ‘Middle Finger’ Emoji
The popular instant messaging app, WhatsApp has been sent a legal notice over the presence of the ‘middle finger’ emoji in the app.
The legal notice has been sent by Delhi based lawyer, Gurmeet Singh, who claims that “..showing of the middle finger is not only offensive but a highly belligerent, invasive, obscene, lewd gesture.”
“As per the Indian Penal Code Sections 354 and 509, it is an offence to show obscene, lewd, offensive gestures to females. Use of a lewd, offensive, obscene gesture by anyone is hereby illegal also as aforesaid. As per section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act, 1994 showing of the middle finger is also an offence in Ireland,” Singh stated in his notice.
“By offering to use middle finger emoji in your app, you (WhatsApp) are directly abetting the use of offensive, lewd, obscene gesture,” the notice said.
Singh went on to threaten civil or criminal lawsuits against the company, should it fail to remove the obscene emojis within 15 days of the notice being served.
[Update: January 01, 2018]
WhatsApp is Testing a Private Reply Feature for Groups
As per some latest reports that WhatsApp is testing a new feature on the Windows mobile version of its app. The feature is called private reply for groups and once enabled, users will be able to send private messages to a group member without anyone else in the group knowing about it.
The private reply feature was first activated in the WhatsApp beta build number 2.17.342 and then later removed with the release of new 2.17.344 build. However, the feature again returned with the latest build number 2.17.348.
Currently, the feature is experiencing a lot of bugs and is still not ready for prime time. But, we are sure that the feature will be released to the public in the coming months if not weeks.
WhatsApp – Amazing Facts (2018)
- WhatsApp is used by more than 1.3 billion people around the world each month and is one of the most popular smartphone apps around.
- On New Year’s Eve WhatsApp broke its record for the most amount of messages sent in one day, with 75billion messages sent on NYE 2017.
- WhatsApp had originally told users that support for these aging mobile platforms would be dropped by the end of 2016. But as the end of 2016 drew close, it got updated the information listed on its website, informing users that the deadline had been pushed back to June 30, 2017. A further update extended the deadline again until December 31, 2017. WhatsApp support for BlackBerry 10 was also meant to end on the last day of 2017. However, users of the mobile OS were given an extra grace period of around two weeks before it went into “expired” mode on it.
See Also
- WhatsApp Lets Users Delete Messages for Everyone after 7 Minutes. Here are the details and tips
- How to Read WhatsApp Messages Secretly? Hide Blue Check Marks.
- How to make Surprising WhatsApp Images? Here is the easiest way.
- Ever thought of Send Full Resolution Photos on WhatsApp? Here is the quickest solution.
Sources include:
- Beebom.com
- ProPakistan
- WABetaInfo
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What do you think about sending legal notice to WhatsApp over middle finger emoji?