Loop the Group
A simple guide to controlling your WhatsApp Groups
WhatsApp, a cross-platform, instant messaging app, is widely popular because it’s remarkably powerful. The Facebook-owned app is both ubiquitous and feature-rich. One of its most popular features is Group, and if you’re using WhatsApp, you’re probably in at least 10 WhatsApp Groups.
Group is a powerful feature that allows selected WhatsApp users to converse simultaneously within the app. Groups allow up to 256 participants to communicate simultaneously in one conversation. Like other WhatsApp conversations, participants can share media, location and contacts, they can trigger notifications, and they can keep your messages indefinitely.
Designated Group participants, known as Admins, have the power to invite, add or boot other participants. They can also share their power by designating others as Admins.
Group is an excellent way for us to bring together geographically dispersed people to collaborate on a project, stay in touch or share information. The problem is, it can be as annoying as it is are useful.
Conversations can get out of hand and stray way off-topic. Multiple notifications can kill your concentration. While massive data dumps can clog your device memory (not the mention you data plan).
If like me, you can’t get rid of Groups, at least you can control them, with these tips:
Customize Notifications
Nope. You don’t have to be alerted every time someone in the Group sends a message. That many alerts could drive you mad and kill your phone battery dead.
Instead, open the Group, tap on Group Info and then tap on Mute. You’ll have the option to do away with notifications for a few hours, days or months - up to a year.
If you feel that a Group is too important to miss any messages, consider assigning a Custom Tone. Right off the bat, you’ll know that the participants are having a discussion.
Exit Unnecessary Groups
Some Groups are useful for a time, then not so much. For those Groups, do not hesitate to say “good bye” then tap Exit Group. A clear exit means that you no longer get bombarded with messages from the Group convo, and you can’t send messages to your former Group mates either.
Once a Group’s usefulness has passed, don’t hesitate to delete the Conversation to free up space on your handset and remove bloat from your timeline.
Clear Chat History
Every message, every file, every link shared by the Group is kept for your convenience; that is unless you ditch it.
Periodically clearing your Chat History is like Spring Cleaning; you keep the house but ditch the dirt.
Guard Your Camera Roll
Clearing the chat history is good. Still, often, the files have already been downloaded to your handset taking up precious storage space. Block photos and videos from automatically being saved to your device by tweaking the settings options from the On default to Never.
As the master of your gadget, you can then individually decide what you will and will not download for safekeeping,
Close Your Circle
Anyone can add you to a WhatsApp Group if you let them. To curtail their ability to co-op your attention, take a moment to adjust your privacy settings. Find the Privacy tab in your Settings then change Who Can Add Me to Groups from Everyone to My Contacts.
When posting in a group, keep your thoughts together in a single message.
Lead by Example
Even if you’re not the Group Admin, you can help re-establish some basic etiquette by leading. Here’s what you do.
Always double-check before posting to ensure you’re in the right Group (I’m sure I don’t need to explain why this is important)
Share with everyone once it’s not spam (no one likes a spam artist)
If you need to have a one-on-one conversation, do it …. just not in the Group since duh!
Only add relevant participants and get permission from both the Group and the newbie before making the add
Be respectful of time. If your Group spans several timezones, you can flash your “Get Out Of Jail Free” card. But if everyone in your Group has approximately the same bedtime, do send messages too late or too early
Try a Broadcast List instead. Share the info, get the direct feedback and nix the chatter with one easy broadcast
If only everyone in the Group played by the rules … what a wonderful world this would be!
