WhatsApp beta for Android 2.24.24.21: what's new?

WhatsApp is rolling out a new update through the Google Play Beta Program, bringing the version up to 2.24.24.21.
What's new in this update? WhatsApp is working on a feature to mention group chats for status updates, and it will be available in a future update!

In the article about the WhatsApp beta for Android 2.24.20.3 update, we announced that WhatsApp was rolling out a feature to mention contacts in status updates. This new feature allows users to directly notify specific contacts by mentioning them in their status updates, making it easier to engage with a targeted audience. When a contact is mentioned, they receive a notification and a message in their chat, alerting them to the mention. It appears that WhatsApp is testing different improvements for this feature, aiming to further enhance engagement with status updates by adding even more flexibility and functionality. Thanks to the latest WhatsApp beta for Android 2.24.24.21 update, which is available on the Google Play Store, we discovered that WhatsApp is working on a feature to mention group chats for status updates!

As you can see from the attached screenshot, WhatsApp is exploring the implementation of a new feature that allows users to mentions group chats in status updates, scheduled for release in a future update. This means that users will be able to notify entire groups in one step, without the need to mention each participant individually in the future. Currently, users are limited to mentioning up to 5 individual contacts per status update, which can be restrictive when they wish to notify a broader audience. By enabling group mentions, WhatsApp aims to enhance the process of notifying a larger number of people at once. Once a group chat is mentioned, all participants in that group will automatically receive a notification about the status update, if the chat with the person who shared the status update has not previously been muted.

With group mentions, users will no longer need to adjust their privacy settings to allow specific contacts to view the status update. Instead, mentioning a group will automatically make the status update visible to all group members, regardless of the current privacy configurations. In addition, this new feature may also help reduce the number of direct messages users need to send, as the entire group will be notified through a single status update. However, it still remains unclear whether this new mention feature will come with any limitations. For example, WhatsApp may impose restrictions on the maximum number of participants a group can have to be eligible for mentions, ensuring that very large groups aren't overwhelmed with notifications. Additionally, there might be a cap on the total number of groups that can be mentioned within a single status update.

A feature to mention group chats in status updates is under development and it will be available in a future update. We will keep you updated with an additional article as soon as we have more details to share about this feature.

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