WhatsApp group calls now let you mute that one person that won’t shut up

Source: Harish Jonnalagadda / iMore

If you’ve ever been in a WhatsApp group call with that one person who just won’t stop talking — or breathing into the microphone! — you’re going to love a new feature that was just announced. Now, group calls let you mute other people, among other things.

The news was announced by Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp at Meta when he posted a message and a couple of screenshots to Twitter. Cathcart says that the new muting power isn’t the only addition, too, with a new indicator showing when people are speaking for easier recognition during large group calls.

Some new features for group calls on @WhatsApp: You can now mute or message specific people on a call (great if someone forgets to mute themselves!), and we’ve added a helpful indicator so you can more easily see when more people join large calls.

WhatsApp appears to be steadily rolling these changes out to people now, so don’t panic if you aren’t seeing them just yet. It’s probably also a good idea to make sure that you have the latest version of the app installed via the App Store or TestFlight, too. Don’t yet have WhatsApp installed? You can grab it for free right now.

While WhatsApp is already one of the best iPhone and Mac apps for sending and receiving messages with people who are not using iPhones, it’s still missing a vital part of the equation. The lack of an iPad app is still less than great, but it’s something the company is considering fixing.