WhatsApp group admins can now prevent members from sending messages in a group

Facebook-owned WhatsApp has been testing some features since last December that give more power to WhatsApp group admins. And last month, WhatsApp finally rolled out the ‘Restrict Group‘ feature that lets the group admins decide whether or not the group members can change group info like group name, group icon and group description. WhatsApp also rolled out a feature that prevents the creator of the group from getting kicked out by other group admins. Well now, WhatsApp is rolling out a feature that lets group admins prevent members from sending messages to the group.

WhatsApp has rolled out a feature called ‘Send messages’ that lets admin decide whether or not to allow the group members from sending messages to the group. This feature has been under testing since last December, but is only rolling out now to the users.

WhatsApp group admins can prevent the group members from sending messages to the group by heading over to the Group Info > Group Settings > Send messages menu and selecting the ‘Only admins’ option. Once this option is selected, the group members – except the admin – will no longer be able to send messages to the group – be it text messages, photos, videos, voice notes, etc.

Once the admin prevents members from sending messages to the group, the members of the group will see a message in the textbox that reads “Only admins can send messages”. The members also won’t be able to type anything in the textbox, and, there will also be a notification message in the group from WhatsApp notifying the members of the change.

Having said that, once the group admin prevents the members from sending messages to the group, the members get an option to quickly contact the admin of the group if they want to send a message in the group. The admin can then either temporarily allow the members to send messages in the group, or, can pass on the message of the members himself.

This feature is already available for iOS users with version 2.18.70, and according to WABetaInfo, it’s available for Android users with beta version 2.18.201. However, WABetaInfo also says that it’s available to Android users on stable version 2.18.191, but we don’t see it yet on our WhatsApp.

Speaking about this feature itself, its usability depends and differs from group-to-group. Hence, it totally depends on the group admins how well they make use of this feature and not turn themselves into a dictator.

What are your thoughts about this new feature? Sound-off in the comments down below.