WhatsApp is rolling out a feature to suggest new group members

WhatsApp beta has a new feature that allows users to add new group members directly from the mention menu. This feature makes it easier for users to quickly include relevant people in a group chat without leaving the conversation.

WhatsApp makes it easier to add new members to groups

In February, WhatsApp released a group history sharing feature. This functionality allows users to share their recent chat history with new group members. It is possible to share messages from the past 14 days, with a maximum of 100 messages. So new participants can quickly catch up on recent messages and understand the context of the discussion without missing important messages shared before they joined.

WhatsApp continues to improve the experience of group chats, making communication more seamless and intuitive. This also includes the introduction of minor features designed to help users perform specific actions quickly. Following the release of the latest WhatsApp beta for Android 2.26.14.7 update, which is available on the Google Play Store, we discovered that WhatsApp is rolling out a feature that lets users add new members in their group chats from the mention picker.

The attached image shows a feature designed to make it simpler for users to add members in their groups. At the moment, users can add members in their groups from the group info screen. Here, they can decide to manually add others to the group or generate a group invite link to share with them. Once they join the group, they can immediately start participating in the conversation. Thanks to recent improvements, they may also access recent chat history to better understand what was previously discussed.

In the latest update, WhatsApp is adding a new way to add members to group chats. When users type the @ in the chat text input, they typically see who they can mention. This includes Meta AI, current group members, and an option to mention everyone in the group. In this list, WhatsApp now suggests contacts that aren't currently in the group. This does not mean that users can mention people who are not in the group, but it introduces suggestions to quickly add them to the group chat. By selecting one of these suggested contacts, users are prompted to send a group invite or add them directly. This reduces the steps needed to include new participants. It also makes the process faster and more intuitive.

WhatsApp selects which users to suggest by relying on several internal signals related to user activity. The app prioritizes contacts the user interacts with most frequently. The app has a local system that tracks messaging frequency to highlight these contacts in different contexts, such as when forwarding messages or for status updates. The same logic is applied when the app generates suggestions to add new group members. As a result, the most relevant people are more likely to appear in the list.

WhatsApp may also suggest some contacts that are not saved in the user's address book. These can include people in other groups. Since group participation is considered a strong indicator of relevance, these users are more likely to be suggested as potential additions to the group. This means that the system assumes that when a user wants to add someone to a group, they are likely looking for a frequent contact or a familiar participant from related conversations.

WhatsApp is currently testing this feature, but it is not guaranteed that it will be released to all users in the future. These features are often evaluated based on user feedback and internal evaluating before a wider release. In some cases, WhatsApp may decide to refine the feature or even discard it if it does not meet their expectations.

The feature that lets users add new members in their group chats from the mention picker is available to some beta testers who install the latest WhatsApp beta for Android update from the Google Play Store. Note that this feature may not be visible to all users immediately. WhatsApp is gradually rolling out this functionality, so access might be limited at first. Over the next few week, more users may see these suggestions for new members appear in their mention picker.

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