WhatsApp is reportedly working on a way to let you exit group chats quietly, without alerting everyone to your withdrawal.
There’s a particular brand of agony to being included in a WhatsApp chat that you no longer wish to be part of. Sure, you can always mute, but that nagging little unread chats icon will keep nagging at you.
It’s always been possible to leave WhatsApp chats, of course, but that’s often considered the nuclear option and a bit of a social faux pas. Leaving a WhatsApp chat lets everybody else in the group know of your departure in no uncertain terms. There’s often no way of doing so without appearing either rude or stroppy.
According to Wabetainfo, WhatsApp is working on a solution. The website has supplied screen shots and information on the ability to discretely withdraw from chat messages, with only group admins being notified of your exit.
Right now the feature appears to be in development on the desktop version of WhatsApp (which is where the aforementioned screen grabs have been taken from), but the post asserts that it will soon be released onto the WhatsApp beta for iOS and Android. There’s no indication of when this feature might roll out to the final version of the app.
This could prove well timed, as WhatsApp recently expanded group sizes to a maximum of 512 members (alongside emoji reactions). No one needs the potential anxiety of letting 511 people know that you don’t wish to continue sharing their company.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
