WhatsApp brings ‘profile icons’ in group chats to make identification easier

Meta-owned WhatsApp is bringing a new update to make it easier for people in large group chats to identify other users, WaBetaInfo reported Tuesday. 

According to the app-tracking website, the instant messaging app is rolling out a new update by bringing the version up to 2.23.6.12.

The new update — called profile icons — is available for some lucky beta testers in the group chats. This feature was released for the beta version of iOS but was under development for Android. 

Users need to open a group chat to check if this feature is available in their WhatsApp accounts. This would allow users to easily identify other users, making it easier for them to participate in group conversations. 

Group chats have usually different people with the same names and it can get confusing at times who is referring to who. But users can now differentiate quickly between different members by checking the profile icon. 

“In particular, when a group member doesn’t have a profile photo or it is hidden, WhatsApp will display a default empty profile photo: this default icon is easily recognisable due to its unique characteristics, including its colour, which is the same as the corresponding contact name,” said WaBetaInfo. 

This feature will be rolled out to more people over the coming weeks.