WhatsApp has released several new features over the past week, including the ability to mute people during group calls (via Android Central). This common sense feature seems useful not only for silencing people who forget to do it themselves, but also if you’re in the same room with someone who’s also in conversation and doesn’t want to hear an echo of what they’re saying.
While some conferencing applications, such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, allow hosts to mute all participants (or specific ones), they usually do not offer a way for individual users to mute whoever they want during a call. This feature offers a new level of control, which is probably best reserved for chaotic meetings that involve up to eight people for video calls or up to 32 for voice calls.
Some new features for group chats at @WhatsApp: You can now mute the sound or send messages to specific people during a call (great if someone forgets to mute themselves!), And we’ve added a useful indicator to help you to see when more people join big calls. pic.twitter.com/fxAUCAzrsy
– Will Cathcart (@wcathcart) June 16, 2022
In addition to the new mute feature, WhatsApp now allows you to send messages to specific people while on a group call, perhaps if you want to make a note to someone during a meeting or play a joke that may not fly with the whole group. WhatsApp is also launching a new banner that will alert you when someone new joins a call after it has already started.
The messaging service builds more than its group call feature. On Friday, WhatsApp announced that you can now choose which contacts can see your profile photo, information and last viewed status, which shows when you were last active on the platform. This can help keep your profile confidential from professional contacts or anyone who doesn’t want access to this information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Last year, WhatsApp began hiding your last seen state from strangers by default due to potential privacy consequences.
Earlier this week, WhatsApp finally introduced the ability for Android users to transfer their chat stories to iPhone after the company initially began allowing users to transfer their chat data backwards (from iPhone to Android) last year. .
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