WhatsApp starts rolling out ‘Dismiss As Admin’ feature to Android users

It seems like the ‘Instagram Stories feature’ is not the only new thing coming to WhatsApp. The instant messaging app is also testing another feature that will be much appreciated by those annoyed by group chats on the platform.

Called ‘Dismiss As Admin,’ the new upcoming feature will allow one group administrator to dismiss another, without removing him/her from the group. Before this feature, it was necessary to remove the person from the group and adding them again, in order to revoke its group admin features.

The privileges enjoyed by group admins, is that only they are allowed to add participants to an existing chat. Similarly, only a group admin can remove people from group chats.

This feature is already being tested for Beta version 2.18.12 for Android users and according to WaBetaInfo (@wabetainfo), a Twitter account that tracks changes in WhatsApp’s beta builds, it is also being tested for iOS users.

Another group centric feature currently in testing phase that came to light was private replies within a group chat.

However, the group chat also faced some negative publicity when it was reported this week that WhatsApp’s Group chats were at a risk of being infiltrated by “anyone who controls the app’s servers”, despite being encrypted.

According to the researchers from Ruhr University Bochum in Germany, once an attacker with control of the WhatsApp server had access to the conversation, he or she could also use the server to selectively block any messages in the group.

Facebook-owned WhatsApp added end-to-end encryption to every conversation two years ago.

A WhatsApp spokesperson confirmed the findings to Wired, however adding that “no one can secretly add a new member to a group and a notification does go through that a new, unknown member has joined the group”.”We’ve looked at this issue carefully,” the spokesperson added.