How many times do you wake up with a constant stream of useless messages from WhatsApp groups that you can’t even remember? Or maybe the dreaded family group they can’t get out of without being clumsily added by a long-lost uncle. And as useful as WhatsApp groups are at times, they can get just as frustrating when a stranger (or distant relative) gets their hands on your phone number and adds you to a series of nasty groups by mistake or with a surprise to party or just out play with you
Anyway, if for whatever reason you just give someone your phone number, they shouldn’t have the right to bother you on WhatsApp. Chat groups. All you have to do is adjust some settings in the app’s data protection area. How to get there:
In WhatsApp, tap the vertical ellipses in the top right corner, then tap Settings.
Go to Account, which should be the first option, then choose Privacy.
Scroll down to the Groups sub-item, under which you will see a list of options that you can choose from based on your privacy settings.
In this list you can select “My Contacts” to only allow people you know to add you to WhatsApp groups. If you often give your phone number to other people outside of your contact list, this is the way to go. Maybe you still have an annoying friend or two who just can’t help but create random groups and put them there. For such people there is the option My Contacts Except … which does exactly what it says on the tin.
Chances are that you don’t prefer any of these options and want people outside of your contact list to add you to their groups, maybe for your business number or something else. In this case, you can remove all restrictions at any time using the All configuration option.
Neither of these solutions is foolproof as group admins can still send you private invitations and urge you to join.But it should be good enough to give you control over the groups you want to belong to and protect you from unnecessary problems.
