WhatsApp has picked up a new and interesting update, but as usual, it is only available on the beta version of the chat app.
The Facebook-owned app, which boasts of more than 1.1 billion monthly active users, has been busy of late with back to back updates. After adding a feature that lets users quote messages sent by others in a group chat so as to be clear what messages they are replying to, the social networking company has once again moved in with another interesting update with regards to WhatsApp group chats.
In version 2.16.272, WhatsApp users are now able to tag other group members when posting a message in a group chat. The app can hold up to 256 members in a single group, meaning that one cannot just tag one member of the group, but also add other contacts to the same message. It gets even better as the feature is not limited to the contacts in your WhatsApp list, but also those who you don’t have their numbers. As long as you are in the same group, tagging them won’t be a problem.
To tag a friend in a WhatsApp group chat, all you need to do is use the symbol @ at the beginning of an entry that also includes the name of the person you want to tag. The good thing with this feature is that it will let you pick a name or contact from a list of contacts that it brings up once you start typing.
With this update, WhatsApp has made it more annoying for those people who like muting group chats so as to avoid frequent notifications that can at times be, well, annoying. This is because when tagged, a notification must be sent to you, even if you have the group’s notifications turned off.
As noted earlier, this new WhatsApp feature is available in the beta version of the chat app. As for the stable version, make sure you keep updating to the latest version regularly in the coming weeks, which is when the feature should be up and running.