WhatsApp announced group chat functionality updates, including new group polls, an improved group creation process and group announcements that alert all members.
First, WhatsApp updated group chat polls with new features. These include enabling group chat members to set a time limit for poll voting, hiding voter names from poll responses and editing poll questions within 15 minutes of posting.
Polls have been available in WhatsApp group chats for some time, but these refinements add another element to votes and participation, providing more ways to encourage direct response from all group members.
WhatsApp also added a new @all alert option, which will notify all group members of important and/or time-sensitive messages.
As explained by WhatsApp: “No more tagging people one by one or hoping your message gets noticed in a busy group chat. Use @all to notify everyone about urgent messages, like school or office closures, event deadlines, or last-minute changes to your plans.”
That could be a handy alert function, though it does also depend on whether all group members are on the same page about what qualifies as critical information.
WhatsApp added that for larger groups with more than 32 people, @all will only be available to group admins.
In addition, individual group members can also mute @all notifications if they choose.
Finally, WhatsApp is making it easier for users to start a new group side-chat, with a one-tap option.
“It's perfect for splitting off into a side conversation to plan a surprise party, coordinate event logistics, or dive deeper into a topic without cluttering the main chat,” WhatsApp said.
So now, if group chat members want to have their own private convo discussing the others in the group, they can more easily do so, though it will no doubt also lead to more uncomfortable revelations of the existence of side-chats as well.
These are handy updates that could provide more conversational functionality within WhatsApp’s group discussion tools.
