WhatsApp is rolling out a new update through the Google Play Beta Program, bringing the version up to 2.23.18.5.
What’s new in this update? WhatsApp is working on a recent history-sharing feature for new group participants, and it will be available in a future update of the app!
RECENT HISTORY SHARING
After releasing a minor change regarding group permissions, WhatsApp keeps working on new features for group chats to release in a future update of the app. If you’ve already had the chance to experiment with WhatsApp channels, you might have noticed that when you follow them, they are never empty but there are already some updates shared within the channel. This is because WhatsApp has implemented a feature that allows messages to be temporarily stored on the server for a maximum duration of 30 days, in order to assist new followers in catching up with the content they might have missed when they didn’t follow the channel. Thanks to the WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.18.5 update, which is available on the Google Play Store, we discovered that a similar feature is in development for group chats:
As you can see in this screenshot, WhatsApp is working on a new setting for groups called “Recent History Sharing”. This feature will automatically share messages sent in the group 24 hours before someone new joins. This is an option that will only be accessible to group admins once it is released in a future update of WhatsApp. When turned on, all group members will always be notified within the group chat thanks to a dedicated message event.
In our opinion, this feature will definitely be very helpful to new group members. Often, when you join a new group, you might not understand the context of the new messages, especially if previous messages were sent before you became a member of the group. A similar issue happens when you receive an invite in private to join a group, and some messages are sent before you have a chance to accept the invitation. Thanks to this feature, you will finally be able to read messages that were shared before you joined the group, assuming that group permissions were enabled by the group administrators.
The recent history-sharing feature is under development and it will be available in a future update of the app. As always, we will publish a new article when we have further details about this feature to share with you.
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