WhatsApp has announced a new set of group chat features focused on making group conversations easier to organise. The latest update introduces smarter polls, an @all mention for important announcements and a faster way to create new WhatsApp group chats.
The most practical of the three updates is arguably the overhaul of the polls. Poll creators can now set an end time to lock voting once the deadline passes automatically. Additionally, they can hide voter names so participants can share preferences without feeling watched.
Poll creators can also edit a poll question within 15 minutes of posting it, useful for fixing a typo or clearing up confusing wording before votes start rolling in. Together, these changes turn polls into a genuinely faster way to settle group decisions, whether that's picking a restaurant or finalising weekend plans.
The second addition is @all, a mention that notifies every single member of a group chat at once. This does away with the tedious process of tagging people individually or hoping an important message doesn't get buried.
WhatsApp positions the @all mention for genuinely time-sensitive updates, things like last-minute event changes, school or office closures, or urgent deadlines.
To prevent the feature from being spammed in larger communities, @all is restricted to admins only in groups with more than 32 members. Meanwhile, smaller groups allow any member to use it.
Notably, @all messages will reach members even if they've muted the group chat. However, WhatsApp is giving users a dedicated toggle in the group's notification settings that lets them mute @all specifically without silencing other mentions or replies.
Rounding out the latest WhatsApp group chat update is a simpler way to create a new group chat directly from an existing one. Instead of manually adding people one at a time, users can now spin up a new group with members already pulled from an existing chat in a single tap.
All three features are rolling out now to WhatsApp users on both iOS and Android. This builds on a string of group chat upgrades WhatsApp has shipped through 2026, including group message history, member tags, text stickers and event reminders.
Do note that these features will be rolling out gradually, so if you haven't gotten the update yet, check back over the next few days.
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