WhatsApp has introduced a new feature through which users can identify if a message is forwarded frequently. The Messaging service has rolled out Frequently Forward message label in India.
With this feature, users will be able to recognise if a message is forwarded more than 5 times. The Frequently Forward message label will appear on the message it is forwarded more than 5 times. Furthermore, the company has also added double arrow just above to message to help understand user that the message has been forwarded many times. WhatsApp, in its FAQ page, revealed, “when a message is forwarded from one user to another user more than five times, this is indicated with a double arrow icon. The number of times a message has been forwarded is end-to-end encrypted.”
The new feature is an extension to the forwarded label that was introduced last year. The feature was spotted in Beta in March this year. “We have recently introduced an update to our forwarded message label that helps people identify when they have received messages that were previously forwarded several times, such as a chain message. These highly forwarded messages will be marked with a double arrow icon and users will receive a notification when they are forwarding such a message,” said WhatsApp spokesperson told IANS.
Previously, researchers from cybersecurity firm ESET exposed a message that they received on WhatsApp which claimed to offer 1,000GB of data for free as part of WhatsApp’s tenth anniversary. Unsurprisingly enough, the message doesn’t come from WhatsApp itself as it claims to neither does it offer 1,000GB data.
ESET details “While you would be responding to the questionnaire, the site would invite you to pass along the offer to at least 30 more people in order to qualify for the big ‘reward’. Needless to say, this is merely a way to boost the campaign’s reach”.