It’s been a long time coming, but it looks like in the foreseeable future we’re likely to get some new tools to manage who can add us to groups. The change isn’t in beta yet and developers are still working on the feature. WABetaInfo has however released details on the upcoming feature and how it will work.
Why do we need a group blacklist feature?
Groups are simultaneously the best and worst feature on WhatsApp. WhatsApp groups allow family’s sports teams and even colleagues keep in touch and coordinate events.
Groups are an essential part of the reason we all love WhatsApp. However, there is a darker side to groups. We’ve all been minding our own business when we accepted a group request only to regret it instantly. Bad WhatsApp groups come in many flavours; such as regular old fashioned spam where you are confronted with every meal your family have eaten since smartphones were invented.
As bad as the spam can be, probably the worst group to get sucked into, are the rooms filled with drama llamas.
We’ve all been in one where, once a day, the group will morph into the seventh circle of hell as members send a million messages explaining in great detail why they’re rather miffed with the world
What is WhatsApp doing about it?
WhatsApp looks to be addressing the problematic parts of WhatsApp groups at the source. They will be giving users the ability to create a list of users who are not able to add them to groups.
As a result, users will have the opportunity to opt into groups. The new feature will be a My Contacts exception. Currently, you can allow everyone, just your contacts or nobody to add you to groups.
How does it work?
With the change currently in development, the option to let nobody add you to groups will be replaced with ‘My Contacts Except’. This will allow users to specify users who can no longer add them to groups.
When one of these users try and add you to a group, you will receive a private message giving you the option of accepting or declining the request.
The feature is under development; the option to allow no one to invite you to groups may come back, but at the moment you’d need to add all your contacts using the ‘My Contacts Except’ option.
As mentioned earlier, the feature isn’t in beta yet. As such, there’s no indication when it will get rolled out officially.
In other news – Rwanda breaks world record for women representation in Parliament
Rwanda has increased its women representation in Parliament, beating its current world record of 64 percent.
According to Taarifa News the new world record for women representation in parliament has shot up to 67.5 percent. Out of a total parliamentary membership of 80, women occupy 54 seats. Read more
Source: thesouthafrican
