WhatsApp may soon let new group members see recent chat history

WhatsApp is one of the world’s most widely used messaging apps, allowing people to send texts, make calls and manage group conversations securely. As the platform continues to evolve, WhatsApp is now testing a long-requested feature that could make joining group chats much easier for new members.

Meta has released a WhatsApp beta through Apple's TestFlight programme which allows group members to share recent chat history with newly added participants.

According to WABetaInfo, the feature allows users to share messages from the past 14 days, going up to 100 recent messages. These shared messages will appear in another colour, which will be easy for a new member joining the conversation to spot.

Having access to previous messages is already available in many messaging platforms, which will now be available in WhatsApp too and will be helpful to new users to quickly grasp ongoing conversations.

When you add a new member through a group info page, users are allowed to share recent messages, and there are some chances to select how many recent messages are to be sent. They are allowed to select 100 messages or a smaller number based on their choice. This grants more control to group administrators.

WhatsApp has also added a transparency layer to prevent misuse. Everybody in the group receives notifications when chat history is shared and gets to learn the name of the person who shared it. The messages are sent securely via the sender's device and remain protected by end-to-end encryption.