If you live in Zimbabwe and are reading this, you are a WhatsApp user. I can also bet all I own that you are in a number of groups on that platform. Some groups you enjoy and some you can’t leave because you’re a coward, lying to yourself that you’re trying to spare feelings.
Whatever the case, the WhatsApp group experience is the same. There’s no way you are going to have everyone in the group saved on your phone in most cases. That means some of the chats that come through will be labelled +26377XXXXXX.
That’s not exactly useful when you want to figure out who it was that last sent that message. Let’s be honest, groups can be exhausting and sometimes you don’t want to jump in. You would however want to know who said what so you can decide whether to plunge in or not.
WhatsApp replacing numbers with usernames
WhatsApp has heard our cries and will be changing that soon. The latest WhatsApp Beta now displays the push name within the chat list. The push name is the username that people can give themselves.
So, from the chat list, you will be able to see that ∼BaKuzie was the last to comment ‘kkkk.’ I don’t know how useful that information would be.
When you finally pop into the group you will also find the username on the chat bubbles. Making it easier to keep up with who-said-what.
I guess that’s why people love their GB WhatsApp. They get to hide their online status, hide that they have seen messages and only get to respond when they gather themselves. For the decent people out there like me who won’t use GB, we have to wait for updates like the one above.
However, if you’re on Android, you can read messages without alerting anyone that you have. Even on the official WhatsApp app. All you have to do is use the WhatsApp widget. Resize it if necessary and you will be able to see all your unread messages in all their glory, no matter how long.
Other WhatsApp features in the pipeline include:
Expiring groups
Have you ever been to an event where a group was created to coordinate stuff? We’ve all been there. You know that the group is only useful for as long as the event is running. The moment you leave the event, you no longer need the group.
I just checked and I’m the last man standing in a ‘Groomsmen’ group from 6 years ago. I’m also still in a few study groups from years ago. I will exit those groups one day. If only I didn’t have to manually go through WhatsApp to decide on which groups to exit.
WhatsApp will soon allow us to set an expiration date for groups. It could be as little as one day or whatever time you think you will need to be in a group. You set the date and when the time comes, WhatsApp will remove you from said group. Perfecto.
Approving new participants
Group admins rejoice. You may have celebrated when you were given the ability to send out group links and have people just join using that. It’s neat but it also robs you of the power to weed out some riff-raff before it pollutes your carefully curated group.
WhatsApp will be allowing admins to reject or approve new members, whether they have a group link or not.
Other features in the pipeline:
- Mute Calls – this will allow you to silence calls from numbers that are not saved on your phone. The call will still appear in your calls list and notifications but it doesn’t need to disturb whatever you are doing.
- Call link – you can create a link to join a call. The feature is available on iOS and Android and will be coming to Windows soon.
- Multi-selection – like the call link, Windows will be getting this soon but it’s already on iOS and Android. This just allows you to select multiple messages within a conversation at once, useful for when you want to delete or forward. Right now on Windows, you can only choose one message at a time.
Also read:
WhatsApp becomes a note taking app, working to allow sending photos in OG quality
Share
Home
What’s your take?