WhatsApp Prepares Group Greeting Feature, No More Need for "Mohon Bimbingannya"

In Indonesia, it has become customary for someone newly added to a WhatsApp group to start with an introductory greeting ending in “mohon bimbingannya.” Nevertheless, moments of awkwardness and confusion due to not knowing the exact context of the conversation often remain unavoidable for new members. To minimise such “cricket” moments, WhatsApp is reportedly developing an intriguing new feature. Based on findings in the WhatsApp beta update for Android version 2.26.19.2, Meta’s instant messaging platform is testing an automatic greeting message feature specifically for WhatsApp groups (WAG). This feature is designed as a solution to users’ habits of often ignoring the group description column. When joining a WAG, new members can actually read the group description created by the admin to explain the group’s purpose or other important information. However, this description is frequently overlooked because users tend to focus directly on incoming messages in the chat room. Through this automatic welcome message feature, a short introductory text will appear on the screen automatically right when someone joins. Thus, new members can immediately understand the group’s purpose, feel warmly welcomed by the community, and participate more quickly in the chat without guessing the context. This welcome message feature is optional and will not be active by default. This means a group will not display a welcome message unless the admin chooses to enable and set it manually. Interestingly, even if a group is managed by multiple admins, it can only have one main welcome message. All admins will share the same welcome text to keep the group introduction consistent for every new member who joins. The message can be designed in various ways, for example, containing an invitation for new members to tell a bit about themselves so everyone can get to know each other. Previously, in February, WhatsApp also announced a feature allowing users to share chat history with new members. This feature facilitates new members to quickly catch up on conversations without the hassle of asking other members to send screenshots or chat summaries. Users can choose to share between 25 and 100 latest messages from the past 14 days, which are still protected by end-to-end encryption. For now, the automatic welcome message feature is still in the development stage and is planned for release in future updates, as compiled by KompasTekno from WABetaInfo. The feature is also not yet available for public beta testing. WhatsApp is currently continuing to refine the way the app sends the welcome message automatically before gradually introducing it to users.