WhatsApp’s new feature to help users stay safe in group messaging

Meta-owned WhatsApp rolled out a new feature that will help users stay safe in group messaging.

This has already started rolling out to users and will be available to all users in the coming weeks, the company said.

According to the company, if users are added to a group by someone they don’t know, they will now see a context card giving them more information about the group.

“This includes who added you, how recent the group was created, and who created it,” WhatsApp said.

“From there, you can decide whether to stay or leave the group and review some of the safety tools available to stay safe and secure on WhatsApp,” it added. The Meta-owned company said that this new feature is particularly helpful when users just met someone or a group of people, and haven’t yet saved them in their contacts - or it can help confirm whether or not it’s a group they know or want to be in.

“This update provides WhatsApp users with another layer of safety and security, building on existing features like silencing unknown callers, chat lock, in-app privacy check-up, and controlling who can add you to groups,” the company stated.

It also mentioned that the update is similar to the current experience in 1:1 messaging as well, where “you’re given more context if you’re messaged by someone you don’t know”.