There's some good news coming from WhatsApp. It turns out that WhatsApp users will soon be able to reply privately to individuals in group chats. Users will not have to start a separate conversation with the fellow chat participant whom they're conversing with.
A report unveiled by WABetaInfo indicates that the messaging service has also introduced a new feature called 'Reply Privately' which lets users reply in a group with a message that will only be seen by the intended recipient.
In the past, WhatsApp users could only make a reply that would be read by all, or privately message the person they wanted to speak to.
The point here is that the 'Reply Privately' feature will allow two individual users to message each other within a group chat. On the other hand, a private message could miss the context of the group's larger discussion since it would take place away from the group chat.
In the event that users are part of a chat group where only the administrator can send out messages, non-admins can now reply privately to the admin, without the message being seen by the rest of the group.
The new update is set to be rolled out as part of the Android version 2.18.335 update. However, this version is not available for iOS and web versions as we speak.
There's also a warning coming from WABetaInfo in which it has warned users not to update to the latest beta version yet, as there is a bug where the app will crash if users delete media that is in the chat.
As we speak, the same update was mistakenly rolled out in the beta update for Windows Phone. But in this case, it was dropped very soon. On this note, users and experts speculated its arrival to be in the near future.
Now it has finally arrived, users will conveniently reply to a particular message in private without alerting the other users of the group chat. If you want to use the feature, you can simply hold the message you wish to reply to and tap on the three-dotted menu that appears on the top right corner of the screen. Here, you will find the Private Reply option that will take you to the exclusive chat window of the specific sender.
There are other reports that suggest that the updated beta version comes with a few glitches as well. Sources claim that WhatsApp crashes whenever a user deletes a particular media message from the group. But there's no verification regarding the bugs.
If you want to download the latest version of WhatsApp, you have to be part of the Official Google Play beta program.
