It seems like 2019 is going to be a good year for WhatsApp users. WhatsApp introduced new icons and more coherent data graphs in January on its beta app. Now, in the coming months will get to see new additional features being included in the app’s beta version: ‘Advanced Search’ mode for Android and iOS as well as ‘Group invitation’ for Android.
Android users would soon be able to experience the group invitation feature that claims to allow the user to approve before an admin can add them to a WhatsApp group.
This feature would be available in the Settings, where the user has to proceed in this manner: ‘Settings > Privacy > Groups,’ after which they would have to choose any one among three options- Everybody, My Contacts, and Nobody. Tapping on ‘Everybody’ will allow an admin to add the user to any group without the requirement of the user’s permission. If the user chooses ‘My Contacts’, then any person existing within their contacts will be able to add them to a group without the requirement of permission. The ‘Nobody’ option would enable the user not to be added to any more groups by anyone without permission.
In that case, a new chat will be created where the user can choose to either ‘Accept’ or ‘Decline’ the request within 72 hours, after which the invite will expire. Even then, the user can get into a group via the group link invite. This feature will roll out shortly for Android users.
As for the ‘Advanced Search’ feature, it is supposed to boost up the search tool that can point to relevant texts as well as the shared media containing those relevant texts, including Documents, Photos, GIFs, Videos, Audio and Links shared between users or among group members.
The ‘Media Window’ bar would list all Whatsapp media messages, which will help users by:
1. Showing the number of stored media files in the WhatsApp Storage, thereby enabling filtering by media
2. Previewing searched items when one goes to search something up, so that users can search more efficiently and not end up clicking on the irrelevant items
3. Allowing users to view their search history that is even erasable via the ‘Clear’ option.
Whatsapp is still developing the “Advanced Search’ feature, for which it is still unavailable as of now in both Android and iOS.
