The Restricted Groups feature was being tested for some time now and finally, it has made it to the official WhatsApp app. What this means is that group admins can stop or block group members from changing group icon, subject/name and description. The new Group settings are rolled out in both the iPhone and Android version of the app. In this guide, you will learn how to use this setting to restrict WhatsApp group members from changing group info or sending messages.
The latest Group Settings will only be accessible to the group admins. Hence you can only restrict the members of a group if you’re an admin of that group.
Here are the easy steps to restrict group participants on WhatsApp.
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Block Group Members From Changing Group Icon, Subject, Description
Update WhatsApp to the latest version from the respective app stores and then jump to the method below.
1. Open WhatsApp and open the conversation of the group of which you’re an admin and want to restrict group members.
2. In the group conversation screen, tap on the Group name at the top.
3. Under Group Info, you will see a new option – Group Settings. Tap on it.
4. Now, you will be taken to Group Settings. Here, tap on Edit Group Info.
5. Next, select Only Admins.
This will do the job.
The group members other than admins will be locked out from editing group photo, name and description. If they try to do so they will get a message saying – “Only admins can edit this group’s info“. After this only admins will be able to edit Group Info. You can change it later to All Participants if desired from the same place.
Prevent Group Members From Sending Messages On WhatsApp
In order to prevent members from sending messages, select Send messages after the 3rd step in the above method.
In the pop-up window select Only admins and tap on Ok to save the changes.
With this, only group admins will be able to send messages to that group. Here’s how the conversation screen will look like for group participants who are not the admin. They will be blocked or locked out from sending messages.
Similarly, you can stop group members from sending messages on WhatsApp for other groups of which you’re an admin if desired.
You can always change the setting and allow all the participants to send messages from the same place.
Apart from this, the new update also added the feature to “Dismiss as admin” which demotes an admin to a normal member without removing them from the group. This feature came in the beta version of the app a few months ago and is now introduced in the official version.
The new Group Settings on WhatsApp certainly prove that there are a lot of users making use of groups on WhatsApp. Do you think these new options are going to be useful for you? Let us know your thoughts by dropping a comment below.
