Whatsapp

Unwanted WhatsApp groups are one of the most common frustrations for millions of users. Whether it’s relatives planning events, colleagues organising last-minute meetings, old classmates reviving inactive groups, or unknown people adding you without permission, group spam can quickly become overwhelming. Fortunately, WhatsApp has introduced a powerful privacy feature that allows you to control who can add you to groups — and this single setting can dramatically clean up your messaging experience. This comprehensive guide explains how the feature works, why WhatsApp introduced it, real-world statistics on group usage, a step-by-step walkthrough, and additional group privacy tools you should be using. Why WhatsApp Introduced Group Privacy Controls With more than 2.8 billion global users, WhatsApp remains the world’s most-used messaging platform. According to Meta’s internal analysis: More than 700 million groups are active on WhatsApp every month. The average user belongs to more than 20 groups. Roughly 30% of WhatsApp support complaints involve unwanted group additions or spam. As group activity increased, so did user frustration. Many people were added to groups without permission — a privacy issue WhatsApp needed to address. To combat this, WhatsApp rolled out a feature that gives users full control over who can add them

WhatsApp is rolling out a new feature (currently for some Android beta users) that lets you add a short tag—like "Designer" or "Project Lead"—right next to your name in group chats. This makes it way simpler for everyone to know who's who, especially when conversations get hectic. How it works and what's next You control your own tag, not the group admin, and each tag is unique to its group—so your "Team Lead" label in one chat won't show up everywhere. To prevent impersonation or spam-like behavior, symbols and links aren't allowed. Your chosen tags stick with your account even if you switch devices. The feature is currently being tested on Android, with a wider Android and later iOS release likely.

Operatives of the Edo State Police Command have arrested a social media content creator, Osarobo Omoyemen, over false kidnap claims made on TikTok. In a statement signed by the command’s PPRO, Moses Yamu, Omoyemen, popularly known as Madam Oil Rice on social media, claimed that she was kidnapped a... Operatives of the Edo State Police Command have arrested a social media content creator, Osarobo Omoyemen, over false kidnap claims made on TikTok. In a statement signed by the command’s PPRO, Moses Yamu, Omoyemen, popularly known as Madam Oil Rice on social media, claimed that she was kidnapped at Upper Sakponba Road in Benin and later rescued by police operatives who purportedly detained her at Akpata Police Station and collected N10,000 as bail. Yamu noted that following the report, the command immediately launched an investigation, and findings revealed that the story was fabricated and deliberate. The statement read, “The Edo State Police Command wishes to inform the general public that a woman popularly known as ‘Madam Oil Rice’ recently circulated a false claim on social media alleging that she was kidnapped along Upper Sakponba Road in Benin City and later rescued by police operatives who purportedly detained her at Akpata Police

Two police officers have been confirmed dead after operatives came under heavy fire during an ambush by gunmen while conducting an intense patrol operation in Sabon Sara Village, Bauchi State. In a statement by Nigerian Police Force spokesperson, CSP Benjamin Hundeyin, the patrol operations of the c... Two police officers have been confirmed dead after operatives came under heavy fire during an ambush by gunmen while conducting an intense patrol operation in Sabon Sara Village, Bauchi State. In a statement by Nigerian Police Force spokesperson, CSP Benjamin Hundeyin, the patrol operations of the combined team of Rapid Response Squad, Police Mobile Force, and State Intelligence Department came under heavy fire during a patrol operation to maintain calm in the community. The statement reads, “In keeping with our mandate of protecting Nigerians, a combined team of Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Police Mobile Force (PMF), and State Intelligence Department (SID) embarked on a visibility patrol earlier today to boost the confidence of locals in Sabon Sara Village, Bauchi State. Sadly, the team came under attack, leading to the loss of two police officers and injury to one other.” It added, “Concerted efforts are underway to apprehend the attackers. We assure Nigerians that

Before it catapulted a small school community in London’s commuter belt into the centre of a global news story, the year-four class WhatsApp group at Cowley Hill school in Borehamwood was unremarkable – a place of snide comments, reminders about non-uniform day and flustered messages about being late for the school run. “It was mum gossip, you know?” said one member, Sarah. “A bit juicy, but it wasn’t anything nasty.” Sarah, who asked to use a pseudonym, is nervous about talking about the group, and little wonder. A conversation and controversy that started in the unofficial parent chat culminated in the arrest of two parents in the Hertfordshire town, sparking fierce debate about police overreach, the right to free speech and the relationship between schools and parents. The saga was covered around the world, discussed in parliament and drew the attention of Elon Musk on X, who appears to have viewed it as grounds for a “political revolution”. In its own – thoroughly improbable – way, it raised a question that might feel familiar to many whose phones get overtaken by the school group chat: what’s the difference between a concerned parent, a busybody and someone who should face the

ANNOUNCER: NPR. DARIAN WOODS: This is The Indicator from Planet Money. I'm Darian Woods. WAILIN WONG: I'm Wailin Wong. WOODS: Did you hear that crash landing, Wailin? Visiting from a galaxy far, far away, the fantastical Nick Fountain. NICK FOUNTAIN: Ah! Here I am! WONG: Ah! Do you come in peace, Nick? FOUNTAIN: Oh, absolutely. I'm here for-- ALL: Indicators of the Week! WONG: On today's show, we have-- WOODS: The results are in on pay transparency. FOUNTAIN: Ooh. WONG: We have people being paid to use social media less. FOUNTAIN: And we have a man eater! WOODS: What? FOUNTAIN: A flesh eater. WONG: Ah! FOUNTAIN: A surprising reason that beef is more expensive these days. WOODS: All the topics du jour after the break. WONG: It's Indicators of the Week. Darian, you're up first. WOODS: My indicator is 2.5% That's the average amount wages have changed following pay transparency laws. That's according to a new economics working paper. FOUNTAIN: Oh, so this is how, recently, employers have had to, because of various laws, post salary ranges on their job postings. Is that what's going on here? WOODS: In certain states, yes. WONG:

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The Indicator from Planet Money It’s … Indicators of the Week! Our weekly look at some of the most fascinating economic numbers from the news.  Packages of ground beef are seen at a supermarket in Houston, Texas. Image: RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP/Getty Images Pay transparency. The WhatsApp and Instagram decision. Our beef with screwworms. NCPR is supported by: More from NPR Brain scientists are seeking weight-loss drugs without the nausea Weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound often cause nausea and other side effects. Brain scientists are looking for ways to solve this problem. This weekend, artists are speaking out across the country Artists in more than 40 states are spending Friday and Saturday participating in the "Fall of Freedom" – which they say represents a creative resistance to authoritarianism. Russian hacking suspect wanted by the FBI arrested on Thai resort island Thai Police have arrested a suspected Russian hacker who is wanted by the FBI for alleged cyberattacks on U.S. and European government agencies. What former ally did Trump call a 'ranting Lunatic' this week? Find out in the quiz This week, the quiz examines truth, drugs and scandal! Rare earths: Federal backing and tech advances aim to help the U.S. catch

Researchers from the University of Vienna and SBA Research identified a privacy vulnerability in WhatsApp’s contact discovery mechanism that enabled enumeration of more than 3.5 billion active accounts worldwide. Meta addressed the weakness following responsible disclosure. The findings were published in a preprint and will be presented at the NDSS Symposium in 2026. “Normally, a system should not respond to such a high number of requests in such a short time, particularly when originating from a single source,” says Gabriel Gegenhuber, Researcher, University of Vienna. “This behavior exposed the underlying flaw, which allowed us to issue an effectively unlimited number of requests to the server and, in doing so, map user data worldwide.” The discovery originated from an ongoing research effort by the University of Vienna and SBA Research to analyze how design choices in end-to-end encrypted messaging platforms can expose user metadata. WhatsApp uses a contact discovery process that matches the phone numbers in a user’s address book with its database. The same mechanism, when queried at scale, enabled the confirmation of more than 3.5 billion active accounts across 124 countries. This investigation builds on previous studies from the same institutions. These projects examined privacy risks related to silent

Even before the launch of the iPhone XS in 2018, many smartphones had dual-SIM support because many people have more than one phone number. However, having multiple WhatsApp accounts on the same device is still impossible, but it appears that’s about to change. WhatsApp is testing multiple accounts support WhatsApp is testing a new feature that allows users to use and manage multiple accounts on the same device. The feature was spotted by WABetaInfo in the latest TestFlight beta version of the app for iOS and is available to some beta users. Users can add a second account to WhatsApp through a new “Account List” section in the app’s settings. Currently, the beta supports up to two accounts, which can be newly created or existing accounts from WhatsApp Business or other devices. Once activated, the history, backup, and notification settings, and privacy preferences for each account remain separate. Switching between accounts can be done through the Account List section in the Settings or by double-tapping the Settings tab to switch to the next account. A press and hold on the Settings tab opens up a quick selection menu. If there’s more than one account activated in the app, notifications will