There’s no quicker way to foster hatred towards your fellow man than being subjected to a WhatsApp group you never wanted to be part of in the first place, then having to be the one that commits the unholy act of leaving said group, with the “Antisocial Loser has left” message wafting shamefully in your wake.
Well now, according to their blog post, WhatsApp is finally allowing us to side-step this awkwardness altogether, by letting you choose who can invite you to groups.
To enable it, go to Settings in your app, then tap Account > Privacy > Groups and select one of three options: “Nobody”, “My Contacts”, or “Everyone”. “Nobody” means you’ll have to approve joining every group to which you’re invited, and “My Contacts” means only users you have in your address book can add you to groups.
You’ll have three days to ignore accept an invite before it expires.
We wouldn’t even need this if we could all just agree that it’s actually okay to leave a WhatsApp group. Like, it’s fine, guys, they probably still love you, they’re just sick of you constantly posting photos of your baby to a group you promised was just for organising board game night. Godammit, Jan.
This feature will see a worldwide roll-out over the coming weeks.