WhatsApp adds @all mentions and smarter group polls

WhatsApp is rolling out three group-chat upgrades today, led by @all, a mention that alerts every member at once. The update also adds deadline controls and privacy options for polls, plus a faster way to split a discussion into a new group.

@all mentions and notification controls

The new @all mention lets any group member notify everyone without tagging people individually. WhatsApp positions it for urgent messages such as school or office closures, event deadlines, and last-minute changes to plans.

The alert will surface even when the group itself is muted. Users can still mute @all mentions separately in WhatsApp’s notification settings. In groups with more than 32 members, only admins can use the feature, a restriction intended to limit notification abuse in larger chats.

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Polls gain deadlines, anonymity, and editing

WhatsApp is adding three changes to polls:

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• Hidden voter names, allowing participants to vote without revealing their choices to other members.
• End times that automatically lock voting once the deadline passes.
• A 15-minute editing window for poll creators to correct typos or clarify the question after posting.

These changes make polls more useful for decisions that need a firm cutoff, while anonymous voting removes the pressure of publicly attaching a choice to a person. WhatsApp’s earlier poll implementation did not offer these controls, so this is a functional upgrade rather than a visual refresh.

Create a new group from an existing one

A new “Create a similar group” button in the group details screen lets users start a separate chat with members from an existing group in a single tap. Instead of adding participants one by one, people can spin off a side conversation for a specific project, topic, or private plan.

WhatsApp suggests uses such as planning a surprise party without cluttering—or alerting—the main group. The feature also builds on the service’s broader work on group organization, including Group Message History, which we previously reported as a way to give new members context when they join an established conversation.

MacRumors additionally reported that WhatsApp has more than 100 million users in the US and more than 3 billion globally. It described today’s changes as a continuation of group-chat updates introduced earlier this year, including message history, member tags, and event reminders.

The most consequential feature is also the easiest to misuse: @all can cut through a muted chat for time-sensitive news, but users must actively disable it if a group starts treating every message as urgent.