WhatsApp to soon show push names instead of phone numbers in group chats

WhatsApp has been testing a lot of features of late and many of them have already been implemented. The Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp is now testing a new feature that replaces phone numbers with the name of the participants of the group. Once rolled out, users will see the push names of the participants whenever someone pings anything in the group. This will reduce the task of saving the phone numbers of each and every participant in the WhatsApp group in order to identify them. 

The new feature is reportedly available on beta versions of WhatsApp’s Android and iOS. There are reports that suggest the update is expected to arrive in the stable version soon. According to WABetaInfo, the instant messaging app started prioritising push names over mobile numbers with the Android beta version 2.22.25.10. During the same time, in December last year, when the position of mobile numbers and push names were swapped in the group chat’s message bubble.

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The feature was liked by many as it made the task of recognising messages from unknown contacts in the group chat window easier. Now according to WAbetainfp, this feature will be introduced to the chat list of WhatsApp also. It has never been possible to save the numbers of all the participants of the group and in order to identify them one has to open the group info to check out the push name. 

Meanwhile, WhatsApp is also testing a new feature that will give more control to group admins. The feature will let them control who can join the group through the invite link. Once the feature is launched, all members will be able to see a prompt stating that the new participant is seeking approval to join the group. The person will be able to join only when the admin gives approval.