WhatsApp groups are a very popular feature that can keep in touch with friends and family all over the world. However, for the sake of simplicity, WhatsApp previously allowed anyone to add anyone to a WhatsApp group, as long as they had the contact number of the other party.
This further complicates a large number of random people’s problems into random WhatsApp groups. After receiving a large number of user feedback, WhatsApp decided to solve the problem by providing privacy settings to prevent users from randomly adding users to WhatsApp groups. Recently, WhatsApp has introduced these group privacy settings to everyone.
Moreover, new group privacy settings on WhatsApp are available on Android. Here’s how you can enable these settings on your smartphone. Before we tell you how you can implement these settings on your smartphone, make sure that you have installed the latest version of WhatsApp on your device.
STEPS:
- Open WhatsApp on your Android smartphone and tap the vertical three-dots icon on the top-right.
- Next, tap Settings > Account > Privacy.
- Now tap Groups and select one of the three given options — Everyone, My Contacts, or My Contacts Except….
- If you select Everyone, anyone can add you to groups.
- Selecting My Contacts only allows your contacts to add you to WhatsApp groups.
- Finally, the third option My Contacts Except lets you allow only selected people to add you to WhatsApp groups. You can either select contacts one by one or you can even select all contacts by tapping on the Select All icon on the top-right.
These people will be prompted to send you the group invite through a private chat. You will then have three days to accept or deny the request for joining the group before it expires.
