To avoid this kind of confusion‚ WhatsApp is now going to label messages that have been forwarded to you to distinguish it from other messages. Have you ever received a Whatsapp message from a friend‚ only to open it and find that it was forwarded from a third party?
“This extra context will help make one-on-one and group chats easier to follow‚” announced WhatsApp on Wednesday. “It also helps you determine if your friend or relative wrote the message they sent or if it originally came from someone else.
“WhatsApp cares deeply about your safety‚” added the company. “We encourage you to think before sharing messages that were forwarded.” The new feature will also help crack down on fake news and hoaxes being shared on the platform.
The Facebook-owned messaging service has been under pressure to curb the spread of misinformation in India after the lynching of more than 20 people accused of child abduction in the last two months. Most recently a mob surrounded and killed five men in Maharashtra state denounced as child kidnappers, a pernicious rumour blamed for similar murders in at least 11 Indian states.
To enable the new feature‚ to make sure you have the latest version of WhatsApp on your phone.
This latest development comes after WhatsApp added a new feature last week that allows only the administrator of a WhatsApp group to send messages and to decide who else can become administrators to limit and make communication more efficient.
Source: Times Live
