WhatsApp has officially rolled out a new setting that effectively allows you to choose which contact is allowed to add you into a chat group. The feature, which has technically been around since last year, has been refined to choose individuals rather than a blanket effect over a user’s entire contact list.
To be more precise, WhatsApp users could only choose between allowing “Nobody”, “My Contacts” or “Everyone” from adding you to their group chat. WhatsApp has since removed the “Nobody” selection, replacing it with a “My contacts except…” option.
To be clear, those who are not allowed to add you into groups aren’t blocked entirely. WhatsApp says that when a group admin who is not authorised to add you, he or she will be prompted to send an invite through private chat, effectively asking for your permission to be added. After it is sent out, users will have three days to accept the invite before it expires.
You may find the options in your WhatsApp’s Settings, followed by Account, then Privacy and eventually in Groups. At this point, the updated feature is still being rolled out, so if you haven’t received its yet, we do ask that you be patient.
