Overview
- WhatsApp announced the four group-chat features on Thursday and Friday, saying they will be made available worldwide in the coming weeks through staged app updates.
- The app now lets members retroactively share recent chat history with people after they join a group, and WhatsApp says those shared messages remain end-to-end encrypted.
- Users can permanently pin important messages inside a group so they stay visible without any preset time limit.
- Members can post status updates that are visible only to selected groups for 24 hours, and a new group filter shows unread messages where a user was mentioned or received a direct reply, including @everyone notices.
- The changes build on February 2026’s history-sharing feature and are meant to reduce information overload in large or active groups, though rollout timing will vary by device and region as updates appear in the Google Play and Apple App Store.