WABetainfo has unveiled a beta feature that allows participants to leave a group with only the admins being notified.
‘Only you and group admins will be notified that you left the group,’ says a beta popup when a group member opts out.
Currently, when someone leaves a group chat, WhatsApp broadcasts their departure to the whole group, making their departure very public. Although leaving a group silently is not yet possible, WhatsApp appears to recognise that making one’s withdrawal less noticeable may be the safest default.
Officially, WhatsApp allows up to 256 users to join a single group, however, this can lead to a lot of coming and departing notifications in a conversation, which can be distracting to other participants.
WhatsApp is also testing rich link previews in Status updates in another beta development. Rich link previews would provide a preview of the website being linked to, giving users an indication of the content they may expect to see if they visit the webpage, whereas sharing a link in a Status update now only displays the URL.
The meta-owned WhatsApp hasn’t said when these new features will be available for the normal users, as it usually does while testing them with its beta users.
Greater file transfers, emoji reactions and larger groups were among the most recent major additions to the platform in the last month.
