Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced an update to groups on WhatsApp designed to give admins more control over who can join a group. Zuckerberg also unveiled a feature that makes it easier for users to discover which groups they have in common with someone.
The company says it wanted to give administrators more control over their group privacy. That’s why it built a simple tool that allows administrators to quickly decide who can join a group. When an admin chooses to share their group’s invite link or join their group in a community, they can now access all requests in one place to manage who they let in. This new feature allows administrators to click an “X” or a check mark to reject or approve a user.
WhatsApp also says it wants to make it easier for users to find out which groups you have in common with someone. The app now lets you search by a contact’s name to see your mutual groups. You can use the new feature if you’re trying to remember the name of a group you know you share with someone or if you want to see the groups you’re both in.
The launch of the new features comes a few months after WhatsApp launched Communities, a new feature that offers larger, more structured discussion groups. Communities add a number of new features to the messaging platform, including admin features, support for subgroups and announcement groups, voice and video calls for 32 people, larger file sharing, emoji comments, and polls. Communities themselves can support groups of up to 1,024 users and offer end-to-end encryption.
“Last year we rolled out communities to help people get the most out of their groups on WhatsApp,” the company said in an emailed press release. “Since launch, we’ve wanted to build even more tools for both administrators and users. Today we’re excited to announce a few new changes we’ve made to make groups more manageable for admins and easier for everyone to navigate.”
The two new features announced today will roll out globally in the coming weeks.