{"id":613847,"date":"2022-08-04T09:07:56","date_gmt":"2022-08-04T07:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=613847"},"modified":"2022-08-04T09:07:56","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T07:07:56","slug":"new-whatsapp-features-to-look-out-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/613847\/new-whatsapp-features-to-look-out-for\/","title":{"rendered":"New WhatsApp features to look out for"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New features are currently in the works for messaging service WhatsApp, according to insider website<a href=\"https:\/\/wabetainfo.com\/\"> WABetaInfo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The changes largely focus on WhatsApp group functionality, specifically giving group admins more control over the participation and content of group chats, enhancing their moderation capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>According to WABetaInfo, the platform will soon <strong>allow group admins to delete messages<\/strong>. The feature was first spotted in testing in 2021, but has now started rolling out.<\/p>\n<p>Admins can delete messages by long-tapping the message in question and selecting &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/wabetainfo.com\/whatsapp-beta-for-android-2-22-17-12-whats-new\/\">Delete for everyone<\/a>&#8216;. The message will be replaced with placeholder text with the name of the admin who deleted it, so all participants will know who took the action.<\/p>\n<p>WhatsApp is also rolling out a feature to allow users to<strong> see a history of participants in a group<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>This includes those who left or were removed from a group <a href=\"https:\/\/wabetainfo.com\/whatsapp-is-rolling-out-the-ability-to-view-past-group-participants\/\">within a 60-day period<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>These new features are bolstering WhatsApp group admin moderation tools &#8211; something which the platform has been lacking when compared to other apps like Telegram or Signal.<\/p>\n<p>This is particularly important within a South African context, where messages shared over WhatsApp hold <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/516386\/new-hate-speech-laws-planned-for-south-africa-including-jail-time-for-messages-sent-via-whatsapp\/\">serious legal repercussions<\/a>, and group admins carry responsibility when it comes to some content and <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/security\/404591-whatsapp-group-admins-and-popia-what-you-should-know.html\">how information is handled<\/a> within groups.<\/p>\n<p>The popular messaging app is also still working on and rolling out other changes like <strong>presenting links in a rich-text format<\/strong> in status updates.<\/p>\n<p>Under the current format, links appear as simple text in statuses. With the update, these links will now present in more detail, including pulling in images and\/or text from the link source, and displaying it in a box similar to how they are presented on platforms like Instagram.<\/p>\n<p>Other changes being developed or rolled out include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Allowing users to add a voice note as their status update;<\/li>\n<li>Adding support for syncing chats across multiple smartphones;<\/li>\n<li>Rolling out the ability to use any emoji as a reaction;<\/li>\n<li>A &#8216;stealth mode&#8217; for online status;<\/li>\n<li>Allowing users to edit their own messages.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>WABetaInfo noted that the rollout of features on WhatsApp has been historically slow, and not the same across the Android and iOS platforms, so users shouldn&#8217;t expect every feature to be available immediately.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/602520\/new-features-coming-to-whatsapp-including-stealth-mode\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">New features coming to WhatsApp \u2013 including \u2018stealth mode\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New features are currently in the works for messaging service WhatsApp, according to insider website WABetaInfo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":409605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[26,2118],"class_list":["post-613847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-headline","tag-whatsapp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613847"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":613853,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613847\/revisions\/613853"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}