WhatsApp is making group chats a little less painful for newcomers and lurkers

WhatsApp is rolling out a bunch of small but handy updates for folks who manage and participate in group chats, on both Android and iOS.

First up, new members in a group will be greeted by a blurb at the top of the chat that displays its description (which is usually hidden in the group info screen). Group admins can use that field to explain the purpose or guidelines for their chats.

Next, if you haven’t opened a group chat or have simply had it muted for a while, you can now spot all the messages that mention you by tapping the @ button that will pop up in the bottom right corner of the conversation screen.

And if you’re the sort who hates group chats, you’ll be happy to know that admins will now have to wait before they can add you back to a group you’ve left. It’s not a perfect solution for ditching a conversation, but we’ll take what we can get at this point.

Lastly, the group info screen now has a search tool to help you find participants by name or phone number.

These are all welcome changes – but sadly, there still isn’t a way to ghost a group and hiding it from your list of conversations. One can only hope that it’s in the pipeline, along with support for group video calls, which was announced earlier this month.

The new features are rolling out to both mobile platforms today, so you should be able to try them out soon.

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