Meta’s WhatsApp is now well established as one of the best apps for group chats. It works on lots of devices (including the web), it gives you more or less the same experience on Android and iOS, and it’s available across the globe. What’s more, as it launched all the way back in 2009, it’s gained a lot of useful features over the years.
If you use WhatsApp, there’s a good chance you’re in a group chat or two—for old school friends, your kid’s sports team, your extended family, the last wedding you went to—and you’ve got more features to play around with here than you might realize.
Those features cover options for organizing the group chat (if you’re a designated admin) or participating in it (if you’re not an admin). Once you’ve made sure you’re familiar with everything you can do with a WhatsApp group chat, the app becomes much more useful—and you can manage your group chat messages much more efficiently.
WhatsApp Group Chat Features for Admins
To get to the main options for a group chat, tap the group name at the top of the conversation, then pick Group permissions: This option only shows up if you created the group and are therefore the admin by default, or if someone else with admin privileges has given you admin status too.
The first option here, Edit group settings, lets you choose whether or not non-admins can change a bunch of group chat settings. These include the group name, description, and photo, as well as settings like pinned messages and disappearing messages. It’s a single on or off setting for all group members (you can’t give some participants these privileges while blocking them for others).
Then there’s the Send messages toggle switch: Turn this off, and only admins will be able to post anything to the group. If you’ve got large groups, this can really help keep the group focused and on topic—you won’t be bombarded by every single member saying “thanks” or “what time are we meeting?” or anything like that.
The next toggle switch is Add other members, which is relatively self-explanatory. Disable this to prevent non-admins from inviting anyone else to the group. This works in tandem with the option below it, Approve new members. With this turned on, any new people wanting to join the group chat (whether through an invite link, a QR code, or any other method) will need admin permission before they can join.