Most people are familiar with this problem: you’re added to a new WhatsApp group but nothing makes sense and it’s hard to jump into the chat because you have no idea what has already been discussed.
With the newly-introduced group message history feature, admins and members can quickly bring new participants up to speed – without screenshots or cumbersome forwarding.
How the new chat history works
WhatsApp now allows new group members to be sent up to 100 of the most recent messages from the chat. But it won’t happen automatically when new members are added to the group – it’s a manual feature. And members can choose whether they want to share 25, 50, 75 or 100 messages. However, admins can disable the message history feature for their groups at any time.
All sent messages are displayed with context: timestamps and sender information are clearly visible, and the history is visually separated from normal messages.
And, for transparency, everyone in the group is notified when the message history is sent out. According to WhatsApp, the group message history remains end-to-end encrypted, like all personal messages, so that data protection and privacy are maintained.
WhatsApp says that this is one of the most requested new features, according to a new blog post. The feature is gradually being rolled out to all users.
Advantages for WhatsApp users
- New members can quickly get the context of the discussion.
- Group admins no longer have to repeat content or send screenshots.
- The entire group stays informed about shared messages.
- Particularly useful for work groups, family or event chats.
You might also want to find out if you’ve already got these two new web features on WhatsApp.