- WhatsApp is rolling out three new tools to help you spruce up your group chats
- Member tags allow you to assign roles to chat members and offer more context within a group, while event reminders are useful for organizing social gatherings
- You’ll also be able to turn any word into a funky sticker with the new text sticker tool
Meta is rolling out the first WhatsApp upgrades of 2026, with three new tools designed to make your group chats more practical and enjoyable.
The platform unveiled via its blog that users will now have access to three new features: member tags, text stickers, and event reminders, which WhatsApp says are designed to “make staying connected and expressing yourself in group chats even better”, with member tags being the standout.
Do you use group chats in WhatsApp to manage a sports team? Or frequently organize social gatherings that require different roles? Member tags give more context to your group chats, allowing you to assign yourself a role so other members know who you are and what you do.
For example, you could give yourself the tag ‘Coach’ or ‘Goalkeeper’ in a sports team group chat, or ‘Dad’ in another. Your tags can be customized for each group you’re in, so you’re not restricted to one tag for every chat you’re a part of.
The second handy feature is event reminders, designed to make it easier to organize social gatherings and herd your invitees. With event reminders, you can create events to send to your friends so that everyone has access to event details in one place, in addition to setting custom reminders that “help(s) everyone remember to commute to the party” or join a pre-scheduled group chat at the right time.
Those are the practical features – now for the fun stuff. As well as member tags and event reminders, WhatsApp will now allow you to send text stickers to really make your group chats pop. You can turn any word into a colorful graphic by typing your text into the Sticker Search, and add newly-created ones to your sticker pack for easy access.
With these fresh group chat functions, WhatsApp is keeping the ball rolling from last year’s slew of new tools. In September, WhatsApp announced five new messaging upgrades, including a handful of AI tools and the ability to share live photos to your contacts, while one of last year’s most notable upgrades was the launch of WhatsApp on Apple Watches – a long=overdue integration we’ve been waiting patiently for.
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