WhatsApp limits message forwarding to five chats to fight rumors

WhatsApp will limit the maximum number of receiving chats of a forwarded message to five worldwide. This is to inhibit the spread of disinformation and rumours. Previously, the limit was still 20 receiving chats.

According to WhatsApp’s head of communications Carl Woog, the update will be distributed on Monday. Android comes first, followed by iOS, he told Reuters. The change “helps ensure WhatsApp remains an application for private communication with close contacts.” That is what WhatsApp states in a blog post, which is not online at the time of writing, but which would have been seen by the Indian newspaper Business Standard.

The limit of five recipients has been in effect in India since July. There are many problems with lynchings based on massively forwarded rumours. In addition, in India the button for forwarding photos and videos was temporarily made less easy to find. An adjustment was previously introduced worldwide whereby forwarded messages are labeled as such in chats.

The maximum is 5 chats and not 5 people. A group chat can contain up to 256 people, which means that a message can theoretically be sent to 1280 people at a time. Below the old limit of 20 chats, that’s 5120 recipients.

A year ago, WhatsApp parent company Facebook announced that the app has 1.5 billion monthly active users.