WhatsApp is always working to add new features to its app and the newest addition comes in the form of enhanced group privacy settings. The new feature makes it possible for you to choose whether you would like to be added to a group or not. This is an important feature that’s been available on the beta app for quite some time but now it’s available to everyone.
The new group privacy settings feature will help restrict your addition to random groups and also introduces an invite system into the mix that will let you decided who can add you to groups. You will need to update your WhatsApp to get the feature.
Controlling Group Privacy Settings
The group privacy settings have been appended to the existing privacy settings for your WhatsApp account. To change who can add you to a new group conversation, follow the steps underneath:
1) Go to the Settings in WhatsApp and navigate to the “Account > Privacy” option.
2) Here you will see a new ‘Groups’ settings, under which you’ll find three very familiar options. While “Everyone” will allow any and all users (even people who are not in your contacts) to add you to groups, “My Contacts” is pretty self-explanatory and “My contacts except” means you can choose some people from your contact list to add you and some not to add you to groups.
When you choose the ‘My contacts’ or ‘My contacts except’ option in the group privacy setting, the admins (who don’t have your number) who are trying to add you to a group will see an error message. It will read ‘Couldn’t add [XYZ] contact’. But you can invite them privately to join this group. If the admin wants you to be in the group, they can tap on ‘Invite to Group’ button. You will receive a message with the invite (as seen below) which you can tap to accept the request.
This sounds like a pretty useful feature and would save you a lot of troubles as you will have the option to accept group invites instead of shamelessly exiting from ones you’ve been added to without your consent.
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