WhatsApp tweaks 2 new features to stop fake news
WhatsApp is working on two new upgrades in its forward feature. Forwarding Info & Frequently Forward
(Web Desk) – WhatsApp has taken an initiative to eradicate fake news from its platform by drastically restricting users’ ability to forward messages to others.
This new feature restricts forwarding a text to more than five people at a time to lessen the flow of misinformation on WhatsApp.
“Starting today, all users on the latest versions of WhatsApp can now forward to only five chats at once, which will help keep WhatsApp focused on private messaging with close contacts, the Facebook-owned company said in an emailed statement. “We’ll continue to listen to user feedback about their experience, and over time, look for new ways of addressing viral content.”
The change will apparently apply around the world. Facebook-owned WhatsApp has already been trying out increased restrictions for the last six months, a limit of 20 forwards globally, and just five in India, where WhatsApp has provided a vector for the spread of child abduction rumors that resulted in mob lynching.
“WhatsApp carefully evaluated this test and listened to user feedback over a six-month period,” the statement read. “The forward limit significantly reduced forwarded messages around the world.”
WhatsApp is working on two new tweaks to upgrade its forward feature. Calling it “Forwarding Info” and “Frequently Forwarded”, the two new changes were spotted in the works in the latest Android beta version. The two features are not enabled yet, but they should be in future beta updates.
The company is working on two new features Forwarding Info and Frequent Forwarding. The two features aren t enabled as of yet i.e., they are disabled by default and should arrive in the next beta updates. “Forwarding Info” will allow users to get more details about a forwarded message. It will let the user know how many times the message has been forwarded. This information will be available for sent messages only, because the user can navigate into “Message Info” only for messages he sent. Once the user forwards a message, he can tap on “Message Info” and know how many times a received message has been forwarded.
“Frequently Forwarded”, on the other hand, is a label that will show up if one message has been forwarded more than four times. WhatsApp looks to add this feature to help the user to understand when a message is very popular on WhatsApp.
The tracker notes that the “Forwarding Info” feature does not seem to be available when a message is set as “Frequently Forwarded”.
As mentioned, there is no clarity on when these two features will be enabled, but it should arrive in future beta updates.
