Catching up on a sea of unreads in WhatsApp can feel like a chore, but the distinction between pinned chats and other conversations helps a little. However, things can be much better because billions of people use WhatsApp every day and it is one of the largestencrypted messaging apps on Android. Meta started working on an email-style filter to separate the unreads and the group messages in the chats tab recently, and that feature is finally rolling out to all users.
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While chat pinning helps to a certain extent, there’s no way to separate the group chats from the individual conversations, unless they are in theCommunitiestab. Meta started beta testing chat filters to separate the unreads or the groups from all your other conversations inJuly last year. However, testing soon stopped and onlyrestarted in Marchthis year. In an announcement on his WhatsApp Channel, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that every user can filter chats now (viaWABetaInfo).
One useful addition
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement in his WhatsApp channel
WABetaInfo rightly points out that the unreads filter isn’t too useful because by default, the app displays unread conversations at the top, or just under your pinned chats. However, the filter for group chats should be invaluable for anyone who hasn’t shifted to Communities or is a member of multiple groups.
When the option is available on your device, you’ll see three pill-shaped buttons labeledAll,Unread, andGroupsshow up in a horizontal carousel, above the top chat in the Chats tab.
It appears this feature won’t be a server-side change and you’ll have to update WhatsApp from the Play Store to benefit from the change. Moreover, Zuckerberg doesn’t specify if we will enjoy this convenience on linked devices as well. Although the app and its developers demonstrate a willingness to implement user feedback, we only wish changes were rolled out faster.
