Back in January this year, we told you about WhatsApp testing a feature called ‘Dismiss as admin‘ that would allow group admins to be demoted to normal group members without having to remove them from the group. Well, that much needed feature is now rolling out to both Android and iOS users.
This ‘Dismiss as admin’ feature is rolled out by WhatsApp for Android users on version 2.18.116, and for iOS users on version 2.18.41. It can be found under the ‘Group Info’ section when you tap on the name of a group member who is also the group admin.
As the name suggests, the ‘Dismiss as admin’ feature allows the original admin, that is, the creator of the group, to demote other admins of the group back to a normal group member. Before this feature rolled out, the only way you could revoke admin rights was by removing a group admin from the group and then adding him back. Well, those additional steps are now eliminated with the ‘Dismiss as admin’ feature.
To demote a group admin to a normal member, all you have to do now is head over to the Group Info section, tap on the group admin’s name, and then tap on “Dismiss as admin”. That’s it. That person will be instantly demoted from a group admin to a group member.
That said, the ‘Dismiss as admin’ feature also fixes a loophole that has been prevalent for years. Until now, it was possible for a group admin to remove the creator of the group, but now, that’s not possible. If you are an admin of a group and try to remove the creator of the group or dismiss him as an admin, you won’t be able to do so (check out the image above for reference).
Having said that, while this feature is available on stable version of Android, which is 2.18.116, it’s missing from version 2.18.117, which is a beta version. Speaking of the beta version 2.18.117, WhatsApp has rolled out a new feature called ‘High Priority Notifications’ that “shows previews of notifications at the top of the screen”. Needless to say, this isn’t available on the stable version of WhatsApp for Android 2.18.116.
If you too have created a group on WhatsApp, we suggest you update your WhatsApp at the earliest, least you want yourself kicked out of the group you created.
