WhatsApp Rolls Out @all Alerts to 3 Billion Users, Overriding Group Mutes
Updated
Updated · WIRED · Aug 8
WhatsApp Rolls Out @all Alerts to 3 Billion Users, Overriding Group Mutes
3 articles · Updated · WIRED · Aug 8
Summary
August 4 marked the start of a gradual WhatsApp update that lets users type @all to notify every member of a group, including people who had muted the chat.
In groups larger than 32 members, only admins can use @all, and recipients can separately disable @all alerts even if the chat itself remains muted.
The same release also upgrades polls with end times, anonymous voting and 15-minute editing, while letting users spin off smaller chats from existing groups in one tap.
WhatsApp, which supports groups of up to 1,024 members and has more than 3 billion users, is leaning further into group features after earlier additions such as message history, member tags and event reminders.
Later this year, the app also plans to launch optional usernames with a four-digit key so people can connect without sharing phone numbers.