WhatsApp replaces a useful privacy feature in Groups

WhatsApp had rolled out a feature that let users decide who can add them to a WhatsApp chat group. Under this feature, users could pick from the following Everyone, My Contacts, and Nobody.

Essentially, everyone could add you to groups without permission, only your contacts could you add you to groups without your permission, or nobody could add you to groups without permission.

For a privacy-focussed individual, this is very useful. You won't be added to random groups by default and you'll still receive invites. You are in complete control of your privacy.

According to WhatsApp, feedback from users indicated that the “nobody” feature wasn't very popular, so they're replacing it with “My Contacts Except.” With this option, users can manually block some of their contacts from adding them to groups.

This might seem useful, but it's less convenient than the “nobody” option. Thankfully, WhatsApp has updated its blog post to indicate that the “Except” option has a “select all” function. So now, rather than select “Nobody”, we have to select “My Contacts Except” and then “Select All” contacts. It's a bit of a retrograde step, but apparently, that's what users asked for.

The new update is now rolling out for a few users and will be available to the rest in the coming days.

If you want to enable this feature, all you need to do is open the app, go to the menu (three dots at the top right corner)>Settings>Account>Privacy>Groups. Now you can select any of the three options.