Highlights WhatsApp rolls out new group privacy controls after testing them for six months

The new group privacy controls are now available for Android Beta and iOS users

WhatsApp for Android stable version yet to receive the new controls

WhatsApp is now rolling out the much-awaited Group Privacy settings to both Android and iOS users. WhatsApp for iOS 2.19.110.20 and WhatsApp for Android Beta 2.19.298 brings new privacy settings for groups. WhatsApp users can now choose who can add them to the groups. For example, users now have three options- Everyone, My Contacts and My Contacts Except. Furthermore, group admins who can’t add you to a group will get the option to send a personal group invite with accepting and reject options. WhatsApp started working on these new features a while ago, but it took the company more than six months to roll out them out. That said, iOS users of WhatsApp will get all these group privacy features first, followed by stable WhatsApp Android app users.

WhatsApp Group Privacy Settings: How to Make Most of Them

After updating to the version numbers mentioned above, WhatsApp users will get to see new group privacy features under Account>Privacy>Groups. WhatsApp for iOS and Android Beta users can now select who can add them to the groups in three ways: Everyone, My Contacts and My Contacts Except. Selecting the ‘Everyone’ option will allow everyone to add you to any group; Selecting ‘My Contacts’ will only allow only the numbers saved in your phone book to add you to a group. Lastly, you can select only a few contacts who can add you to any group.

Furthermore, WhatsApp also says ‘Admins who can’t add you to a group will have the option of inviting you privately instead.’ Having said that, users will still have to enable any of these options to stay away from all the unwanted groups. By default, WhatsApp sets the option to Everyone, meaning anyone with your mobile number can add you to any group without any requirement of an invite.

We suggest everyone enable the ‘My Contacts’ option so that whenever someone out of your contacts adds you to any group an invite will be sent to you personally so that you can join or reject the group invite.

WhatsApp is Rolling Out Group Privacy Controls Only to Android Beta and iOS Users Now

WhatsApp is the popular instant messaging platform right now, but it looks like the new group privacy features are being rolled out to only Android Beta and iOS users. This essentially means the stable Android app users will have to wait a bit more for these new features. WABetaInfo was the first to report these new group privacy controls and we were able to spot them on the latest Android Beta installed on OnePlus 7T and Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro smartphones.

The Group Privacy controls are probably the long-overdue features from the house of WhatsApp. Generally, in India, a lot of users automatically get added to random groups without their permission, but WhatsApp is making an attempt to change this scenario with the new group privacy controls. But it’s sad to see the company not automatically giving the option of group invite for every random group addition. WhatsApp users will still have to head over to Group Privacy controls hidden under the Settings to enable My Contacts option, so that they can receive group invites from the numbers outside their phone book.

Earlier, WhatsApp used to have a ‘Nobody’ option which basically restricted everyone from adding a particular number to a group. WhatsApp removed this option now and brought the new group privacy controls.