You can now mute individual users during WhatsApp group calls

You can now mute individual users during WhatsApp group calls

This past week, WhatsApp introduced a number of new features, one being the option to mute individuals during group calls (via Android Central). If you're in the same room as another who is on the call and don't want to hear an echo of what they say, this sanity-saving tool seems to be helpful for muting people who forget to do it themselves.

While some conferencing applications, such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, allow hosts to mute all (or specified) users, they often will not provide a way for individual users to mute any specific speaker. It's probably best to reserve this option, that adds a new level of control, for chaotic meetings including a maximum of 8 participants on video calls or 32 participants on audio calls.

In addition to the new mute feature, WhatsApp also enables you to message specific individuals while on a group call, which might also come in useful if you need to write things down during a meeting or crack a joke that the group might not find amusing. Additionally, WhatsApp is adding a brand-new banner that will inform you whenever a call has been joined by a new party after it has already begun.

Besides just its group calling feature, the messaging service is growing. WhatsApp announced on Friday that you may now choose which contacts can see your profile photo, about, and the last-active-on-the-platform status. This could help preventing access to your profile by professional contacts or other individuals you don't want to have continuous access to this information. Due to potential privacy concerns, WhatsApp started hiding your last saw status from strangers by default last year.

After first enabling users to transfer their conversation data in the opposite direction (from iPhone to Android) last year, WhatsApp this week finally made it possible for Android users to transfer their chat histories to iPhone.

Source: The Verge and Android Central