There’s an unspoken rule about giving people context before adding them to a group. WhatsAppespecially if it is a large group with active members. Until now, you had to do that task manually, acting as a chatbot and summarizing everything in your own words, or sharing screenshots. However, an upcoming WhatsApp update could help you with this.
The Meta-owned messaging platform is testing a new feature called “group chat history sharing” (via a report from WABetaInfo). As the name suggests, the feature allows a WhatsApp user (probably the administrator) to share chat history (up to 100 messages sent in 14 days) with someone while adding them to a group.
How shared chat history works on WhatsApp
Once users select a contact name, the option to share chat history appears at the bottom of the screen, as a dialog box with options to send the last 25, 50, 75, or 100 messages. When the new participant opens the group conversation, they will see messages (with corresponding timestamps) appear in the chat.
Instead of joining the group without context about what is happening, the new participant gets an idea of the topic being discussed and how the conversations are going, which can be crucial, especially in professional WhatsApp groups. Basically, the feature allows new group members to get up to speed in a much more efficient and effective way.
Previously, the “group chat history” feature was available in the beta version of the app for WhatsApp. Now, it is also available for users testing the latest beta version of WhatsApp for iOS (available in the TestFlight app). It is worth mentioning that the function is not activated by default; The platform does not automatically send group chat history to new members.
Beta testers can share group chat history with users who do not have access to the feature, implying that the background infrastructure that supports it is already in place. It’s only a matter of time before WhatsApp releases it via a stable update to the general public on both Android and iOS.