WhatsApp is rolling out a new set of group chat features starting today, Meta announced, aimed at making it easier to manage conversations with many participants. The update follows changes introduced earlier this year, including text stickers, reminders for group events, and customizable labels for members.
Anonymous and time-limited polls
Polls receive the biggest set of changes, with three new features. Users can now set an end time after which no more votes will be accepted.
Group administrators can also hide the names of people who have voted, allowing members to cast their choices anonymously. In addition, WhatsApp now allows the poll question to be edited within 15 minutes of posting, so typos can be fixed or a question clarified without deleting the poll and starting over.
@everyone mentions for important messages
To make sure a message meant for the whole group does not get missed, WhatsApp is adding support for @everyone mentions. Instead of tagging each member individually with the @ symbol, users can type @everyone to alert the whole group to an important message.
@everyone notifications are delivered even when a group is muted, according to Meta. Each member can still silence these alerts individually through WhatsApp's notification settings.
To prevent misuse of the feature, only administrators will be able to use @everyone in groups with more than 32 members.
Easier group creation
WhatsApp now also lets users create a new group chat by selecting participants directly from an existing group. Meta said this can be useful when a smaller number of members want to discuss a specific topic without filling the main group with messages that are not relevant to everyone else.
