This week, WhatsApp added a number of new features, including the option to mute others during group calls (via Android Central). This sanity-saving tool appears to be useful not only for muting folks who fail to do so, but also if you’re in the same room as someone else on the conversation and don’t want to hear an echo of their words.
While some conferencing programmes, such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, allow hosts to mute all (or particular) participants, most don’t allow individual users to mute anybody they wish during a session. This function provides a new degree of control that’s probably best reserved for frantic meetings with up to eight individuals on video calls or 32 on audio conversations.
In addition to the new muting feature, WhatsApp also allows you to message particular people while on a group call, which is useful if you need to send a note to someone or crack a joke that might not go down well with the entire group. WhatsApp is also introducing a new banner that will notify you when someone joins a call after it has already begun.
More than simply its group calling capability is being developed by the messaging service. WhatsApp said on Friday that you can now control who sees your profile photo, about, and last seen status, which reveals when you were last active on the network. This could keep your profile hidden from professional contacts or anyone you don’t want to have access to it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Due to potential privacy concerns, WhatsApp began hiding your last seen status from outsiders by default last year.
WhatsApp finally allowed Android users to move their chat histories to iPhones earlier this week, after the firm first allowed users to transfer their conversation data in the opposite manner (from iPhone to Android) last year.
