WhatsApp: You can now leave group chats quietly. Here's how

Let’s face it, sometimes a WhatsApp group outlives its usefulness and you just want to leave, but the thought of others seeing that you have left stops you. Well, now, WhatsApp is making it possible for you to leave these group chats quietly. WhatsApp owner, Meta announced this new feature will be rolled out this month, starting in the UK.

You have left the group

The messaging app, used by over 2 billion people worldwide currently alerts all members of a group chat when someone leaves or had been removed. So when you choose to ‘exit group’, you do not have the option to it without drawing attention to it. With the novel changes that are coming, you can leave without anyone in the group but the administrators being notified, BBC reports.

Product head Ami Vora said WhatsApp is committed to giving users control and privacy over their messages.

We believe WhatsApp is the most secure place to have a private conversation. No other global messaging service at this scale provides this level of security for their users' messages, media, voice messages, video calls, and chat back-ups.

How to leave

As the update is yet to be rolled out, it is unclear exactly how it will work, but one thing that is guaranteed is that you can secretly leave that group chat with the annoying interactions without the awkwardness.

Another feature in the offing is the option to allow only certain contacts - or no-one - to see when you are active on the platform. This means you get to decide who sees your online status. Janis Wong, research associate at The Alan Turing Institute, told BBC News:

It's always nice to give users more control - users like, and need to have, more control.

Be on the lookout for these cool changes.

Read more:

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⋙ WhatsApp: Know when someone reads your message in the group chat

⋙ WhatsApp: This new feature gives you extra privacy when you're online