Sneaking out of WhatsApp group chats quietly might be about to get easier

WhatsApp message thread on iPhone X (Image credit: Luke Filipowicz/iMore)

What you need to know

WhatsApp is testing a change that will make it easier to leave group chats without everyone knowing.
WhatsApp will no longer alert everyone in a group chat when you leave.
Group admins will always be notified.

WhatsApp is about to make it easier to leave a group chat without letting everyone know. The company is working on a change that will allow people to leave group chats silently, without the usual in-chat message that alerts everyone.

The change will mean that leaving a WhatsApp group chat will be easier than ever, without the fanfare that it normally causes — with the added potential of upsetting other chatters. According to a new WABetaInfo report, WhatsApp is already testing the feature and while no in-chat message will be seen, group admins will be notified of your betrayal.

This screenshot is very clear: when you want to exit a WhatsApp group, other people won't be notified in the chat. Only group admins will be able to see who exits the group, but others don't. What does it mean? When you exit a group, WhatsApp normally adds a system message in the chat to inform all participants that you exited the group: this information will only show up to group admins in the future. Group admins should always be notified about what happens in their groups, so it is needed to show them who exited a group.

screenshot showing group chat interface (Image credit: WABetaInfo)

While this screenshot does show the desktop version of the WhatsApp app, we can be sure that the same feature will roll out to all versions of it eventually.

There is no timing currently available for when this feature will go live for everyone, however. WhatsApp is currently one of the best iPhone apps at what it does and this change, while a small one, is still notable. People often don't leave group chats because they don't want to upset people, for example.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.