Shortly after announcing new tools for voice notes, WhatsApp is now enabling new restrictions when forwarding forwarded messages to other group chats on WhatsApp beta for both Android and iOS. The company is also readying a new Communities tab.
WhatsApp to soon enable new restrictions when forwarding forwarded messages
As reported by WABetaInfo, this forward limit was made available last month with WhatsApp beta version 2.22.7.2 for Android and it was introduced to iOS today with beta version 22.7.0.76. The limit prevents users from sending forwarded messages to more than one group chat to curb the spread of spam and misinformation.
As of now, the functionality is only applicable to already forwarded messages. Users who are the owner of the message will be able to send it to whomever they want.
The feature was first introduced in Brazil three years ago. In Brazil, a message forwarded once can be shared with up to five chats whereas a message forwarded multiple times can only be forwarded once. The feature should become available to more users in the coming weeks.
In addition to this, WABetaInfo recently shared new information about the Communities feature. WhatsApp is planning on replacing the camera tab with one for Communities. In a screenshot shared by the publication, it says, “Communities bring related groups together. Any community you create or get added to will appear here.”
The feature will allow users to create Communities with up to 10 groups to discuss the topics they are interested in with a larger group of people. Communities will be protected by end-to-end encryption. As of right now, there is not a lot we know about the feature but we know that it will allow users to reach members at once by sending messages,
WhatsApp is also readying a ton of features to launch in the future like a new UI design to make the user interface cleaner, polls for group chats, the ability to migrate chat history from Android to iOS, an increased 2GB limit for file sharing, and a new reactions feature for mobile and desktop. Message reactions are reported to be available in individual chat threads and group chat threads allowing users to react to a message using different emojis.
