In a bid to minimise fake news on its platform, WhatsApp is now testing a new feature within its Groups Settings to help users stop sending "Frequently Forwarded" messages, as discovered by the ever-reliable WABetaInfo blog.
The blog says that the Facebook-owned platform is already working on two features that will help its over 1.5 billion users know how many times a message has been forwarded, and let them decided which message should be forwarded or not.
The "Forwarding Info" and "Frequently Forwarded" features are not available yet but WhatsApp is working on these features in its beta update for Android, the blog mentioned in its post.
Now, in the "2.19.97 beta update, WhatsApp is testing a new feature in groups that allows you to stop sending Frequently Forwarded Messages in the group," it said.
When the feature is enabled, nobody will be able to send a Frequently Forwarded message in the group.
The option will be available in Group Settings on WhatsApp and it seems only the administrators can see and edit it.
If you are an admin and you don’t like this feature (maybe because you know that everyone forwards real news), you can choose to keep it disabled. When the feature is enabled, nobody will be able to send a frequently forwarded message in the group.WABetainfo
A user can copy the Frequently Forwarded message and send it as a new message but this will slow the process.
A message is ‘Frequently Forwarded’ when it has been forwarded more than four times. Currently, WhatsApp has limited the forwards to a maximum of five in India, which is gradually rolling out to other countries as well.
Considering that admins create and manage a group on WhatsApp, it would have been worth letting other users to also exercise this option.
(With IANS inputs)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)