These are WhatsApp’s shiny new Group Chat features

In a not-all-that-exciting update, WhatsApp has tweaked the way groups work on its platform.

There are five distinct changes outlined by the company on its blog.

Firstly, group descriptions are now more verbose, allowing users to set “the purpose, guidelines or topics for the group”. (Good luck sticking to them though.)

“When a new person joins a group, the description will show up at the top of the chat,” the company highlights.

Secondly, group admins can now determine “who can change the group’s subject, icon, and description” through the group settings menu.

“Admins can now remove admin permissions of other group participants, and group creators can no longer be removed from the group they started,” WhatsApp adds.

If you’re also constantly hounded to rejoin a group that you’ve left, WhatsApp has “introduced protection” to ensure this doesn’t happen.

“Group catch up” is another new feature, allowing users to quickly catch up on those 430 messages you missed since you put down your phone.

“When you’ve been away from a group chat, quickly catch up on messages that mention or reply to you by tapping on a new @ button that appears at the bottom right corner of the chat,” the company clarifies.

And finally, users can now search for particular group participants within group chat.

All features are live on Android and iOS today.

Feature image: WhatsApp