Group messaging is at the core of how so many of us communicate with everyone from friends, to work teams, and even our families. Ever-growing access to great encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp has simplified setting up these groups, as well. WhatsApp has slowly been working to improve group messaging with features like new icons for profile pictures and video messaging, and now, developers are beta testing a convenient new way to add participants to your group chats.

The way things have been working, when you want to add someone new to a WhatsApp group chat, you need to head deep into the menus — open the overflow menu in the chat by tapping the three-dot button, select Group info, and then tap the Add participant button above the list of current members.If you’re someone creating their very first group, or just getting started with WhatsApp, you may not find this option easy or obvious. Perhaps in light of that, WhatsApp is trying out a simple fix with beta version 2.23.16.10 of the app, distributed through the Google Play Store.

The messaging app is now testing a new add-participants banner at the top of the group chat screen, with a one-tap shortcut to add people to the chat, spotted by WABetaInfo. That small tweak could add up to save everyone precious minutes spent navigating through menus to add participants, and should also make the app more user-friendly for newbies.

WABetaInfo doesn’t note whether this banner will appear exclusively in new group chats, or if older chats will also see it once it rolls out. While we suspect it will be more useful in the former setting, we’ve yet to be able to confirm the details. In any case, though, it seems likely we’ll be seeing more of this soon, considering this is a wider beta rollout following an initial, much more limited test. Depending on your luck, the feature may also be available in older versions of the app, going as far back as v2.23.16.3.

While not the biggest overhaul, this would enhance the user experience for anyone getting started with group messaging on WhatsApp. Further down the road, we could even see WhatsApp expanding something like this it to Communities, which cater to even larger groups.

Source By: androidpolice

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