WhatsApp adds chat filters to help you more easily find specific messages
If you've ever had trouble finding a specific WhatsApp message in your lengthy chat list, this one is for you. On Tuesday, Meta announced a new WhatsApp chat filter option that lets you narrow the focus to only specific types of messages.
Normally, you might have to scroll through dozens or hundreds of messages to try to locate the one you want. With the new filters, however, you can choose between three views that appear at the top of the chat list: All, Unread, and Groups.
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They differ as you might expect:
- All is the default view and shows all your messages.
- Unread shows only the messages that you haven't yet read, indicating the ones you need to catch up on or respond to. The messages filtered by this view are ones you either haven't opened yet or that you've marked as unread.
- Groups shows all your group chats so that you can more easily access and add to the discussions. This view will also show subgroups of any community discussion groups that you've joined.
WhatsApp already offers a way to filter between read and unread messages: just tap the icon to the right of the search field. These filters, however, promise to be simpler and more effective.
"We believe filters will make it easier to stay organized, find your most important conversations, and navigate through messages more efficiently," WhatsApp said in its news release. "We'll continue to build more options to help you focus on what matters most. These filters are starting to roll out today, and will be available to everyone in the coming weeks."
Chat filtering isn't the only new option that can help you find specific messages. Meta has also integrated its Meta AI chatbot into WhatsApp to answer general questions and point you to certain features. Tapping the Search field in your chat list triggers the chatbot. You can then limit the view to messages with specific types of content, such as photos, videos, links, documents, and GIFs.