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Too many WhatsApp groups? There’s a fix coming for that

The WhatsApp logo.
WhatsApp

If you’re in far too many WhatsApp groups and wish there was a way out, a new update could soon be rolling out to help.

The new feature, spotted in WhatsApp beta, is expected to arrive in a stable update soon.

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Currently chat broadcast, or broadcast list, can be used to send a single message to multiple recipients. A great way to avoid creating a new group, right? Nearly.

The issue here has always been that you can’t control messages. This appears to be about the change with a new “limit messages” feature.

Usefully, this allows you to limit the number of messages sent in that particular broadcast. A monthly cap is set on the number of messages that can be sent in that particular broadcast group.

So if you have the broadcast set to a 30 day limit, for example, that will default to a 30 message limit.

WhatsApp will show you, at the top of the broadcast, how many recipients are in there as well as how many messages they have left out of the total available for the period. This comes up as a prompt alert, in the beta version at least.

How can I try this in WhatsApp?

At this stage the new broadcast chat features are only available in WhatsApp Android beta 2.25.10.8.

If you want to try you will have to be part of the Google Play Beta Program.

Failing that you can wait for this to roll out on the stable WhatsApp version in what should be an update that’s coming soon – based on how developed this already is in the beta.

Make WhatsApp default on iPhone

This news comes after the recent iOS 18.4 update which allows iPhone users to set WhatsApp as their default service both for messaging and for calls.

To do this make sure you’re updated to iOS 18.2 or newer, go to Settings, then Apps then Default Apps where you can select the Messaging and Calling menus to set WhatsApp as default.

Luke Edwards
Luke has over two decades of experience covering tech, science and health. Among many others, Luke writes about health tech…
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