WhatsApp Introduces @all Mentions, Anonymous Polls, New Group Chat Creation Feature

Hyderabad: Meta-owned messaging application WhatsApp has introduced three new features for group chats, which include improvements to polls, alerting everyone in the group with @all mention, and creating group chats from existing groups.

Some of these features, including the @all, were already available to some users on Android, iOS, Desktop, or Web. WhatsApp now seems ready to ship these features to everyone. Let's take a detailed look at these features.

@all mentions: Mentioning the name of a participant in WhatsApp groups is a fine way to get their attention. However, there are times when you want to alert all the participants. While platforms like Slack allow you to perform the action, WhatsApp is also adding the @all mention in group chats with the same effect. Typing @all in the group notifies everyone in the group for urgent messages. By default, everyone in the group will receive the notification for such mentions even if they put the group on mute so they can receive those urgent messages. However, users can choose to mute @all in notification settings. To stop the misuse of the feature, WhatsApp is also limiting the feature to admins in larger groups with more than 32 people.

Better polls: WhatsApp is adding three new improvements to group polls. Group members can now set an end time for their polls and lock voting when the time is up. Polls will no longer show voter names, making the voting anonymous and possibly allowing a more comfortable experience for sharing preferences. Users can now also edit their poll questions within 15 minutes if they spot a typo or need to add some clarification.

Create group chats from existing groups: WhatsApp is also adding the ability to instantly start a new group chat with people from an existing one in just a tap, allowing users to set up a side chat with people from a particular group. This could come in handy on occasions like when planning a birthday party for someone who is already in a group with all the common friends.

These new abilities join WhatsApp's ever-expanding list of features, which recently included group message history, member tags, and event reminders.