If you are an active member of a WhatsApp group, you often want to know who is online at any given time. But currently, there is no way to check whether group members are online. However, WhatsApp is testing a feature that will display the number of users online in a group. You can understand this by going to the top app bar of the group chat.
How the feature works
Currently the top bar of the group chat displays a summary of group participants’ names. With this update, you can quickly see how many people are online before sending a message, said Webetainfo.
It’s important to note that this number represents customers who have the app open, but that doesn’t mean they’ll read this text. Also, participants who have disabled the option to view their online status from WhatsApp’s privacy settings will not be shown in the final tally to protect their privacy.
Why is this feature useful? In a group, knowing how many members are online gives you an idea of when you can expect an immediate response. This is especially useful in large groups, where real-time conversations are more likely when several members are online together.
Who is using it?
Currently, this feature is in beta i.e. experimental mode and is available to a limited number of beta testers with the latest version of WhatsApp for Android. According to WABetaInfo, the feature is expected to roll out to more users in the coming weeks. It is believed that Meta is bringing some of the features of being online on Facebook to WhatsApp. But the privacy options here are much stricter.