WhatsApp rolls out tons of new features

This week, WhatsApp added a number of new features, including the ability to mute people during group calls (via Android Central). This sanity-saving feature appears to be useful not only for muting people who forget to do so, but also if you're in the same room as someone else on the call and don't want to hear an echo of their words.

While some conferencing apps, such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, allow hosts to mute all (or specific) participants, most don't allow individual users to mute who they want during a call. This feature adds a new level of control, but it's probably best reserved for tumultuous meetings with up to 8 people on video calls, or up to 32 on voice calls.

In addition to the new muting feature, WhatsApp now allows you to message specific people while on a group call, which is useful if you need to send a note to someone or crack a joke that might not go over well with the entire group. WhatsApp is also introducing a new banner that will notify you when someone joins a call after it has already begun.

WhatsApp also announced on Friday that you can now control who sees your profile photo, about, and last seen status, which shows when you were last active on the platform.