WhatsApp Reduces Forwarding To 5!

[RedBar]

I'm not too sure where to post this however today in the UK WhatsApp has reduced forwarding now limiting it to 5.

The reduction to 20 I could live with, this will now make my working life much more difficult until an alternative comes along.

No doubt this is to try and force business users to their paid-for service.

Sorry WhatsApp, you're about to lose me as a customer.

[tangor]

Or is it a way to reduce the reach of fake news and memes? Inquiring minds want to know!

[lucy24]

I am always happy to hear about anything that makes mass-forwarding harder.

[NickMNS]

@redbar sorry for my ignorance but what exactly are you forwarding? Are you forwarding a whatsapp message to whatapp accounts?

How much is the paid service?

[RedBar]

but what exactly are you forwarding?

Forwarding legitimate business enquiries to global suppliers in my industry.

How much is the paid service?

It all depends on several things, I'm sort of still looking at it however it doesn't look viable, except for Facebook!

[NickMNS]

Forwarding legitimate business enquiries to global suppliers in my industry.

I get this, I'm not questioning your motives. My questions is are you sending Whatsapp messages to WhatsApp accounts. Wouldn't text messages to phones be more effective in a business environment? Doesn't whatsApp require both parties to have the app installed?

[robzilla]

The five-recipient limit was initially put in place in India last July. A larger limit, of 20 recipients, was put in place globally. WhatsApp said at the time the limits would “help keep WhatsApp the way it was designed to be: a private messaging app”. (emphasis mine)

Carl Woog, the head of communications at WhatsApp, told the Guardian on Monday: “We settled on five because we believe this is a reasonable number to reach close friends while helping prevent abuse.”

WhatsApp puts limit on message forwarding to fight fake news [theguardian.com] (January 21, 2019)

Use cases like "forwarding legitimate business enquiries to global suppliers" are probably not very high on their priority list.

[tangor]

Sounds more like WhatsFBapp is looking to control (make money off of) is old style groups and newsletters built without their having a finger in the pie.

Then again, fake news is a great pretext for limiting what people can do. :)

Meanwhile, who is watching the watchers?

[robzilla]

Fake news spreading by means of mass forwarding and leading to actual deaths vs. some people (mis-)using a private messaging app for their "newsletters" and "business enquiries". Hmm, yeah, no, it's probably Facebook squeezing money out of us again.

[engine]

No doubt this is to try and force business users to their paid-for service.

Happens all the time. Puppy dog technique is well known.

Sorry WhatsApp, you're about to lose me as a customer.

Were you paying to use the service?