How to stay in touch with WhatsApp
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OK. You’ve heard people talking about WhatsApp groups to stay in touch with each other, and you’d like to set one up for your Lodge, Chapter, centre, or even family. It’s easy to do. Here’s a video explaining how to do it, made by the clever WhatsApp people themselves:
Or, to put it into words (again from the WhatsApp people), to create a group of people already using WhatsApp:
Go to the CHATS tab in WhatsApp.
Tap More options > New group.
Alternatively, tap New chat > New group.
Search for or select contacts to add to the group. Then tap the green arrow.
Enter a group subject. This will be the name of the group that all participants will see.
The subject limit is 25 characters.
You can add emoji to your subject by tapping Emoji .
Optionally, add a group icon by tapping the Camera icon. You can choose to use your Camera, Gallery or Search Web to add an image. Once set, the icon will appear next to the group in the CHATS tab.
Tap the green check mark when you’re finished.
Invite into groups via links
If you’re a group admin, (and you are if you’ve set it up) you can invite those without WhatsApp to join a group by sharing a link with them. They’ll have to ad the app to their phone. To share a group invite link:
Go to the WhatsApp group chat, then tap the group subject.
Alternatively, tap and hold the group in the CHATS tab. Then tap More options > Group info.
Tap Invite via link.
Choose to Send link via WhatsApp, Copy link or Share link via another app.
You can also share a group invite using a QR code by tapping More options > Print group QR code.
If sending via WhatsApp, search for or select contacts, then tap Send
To print the QR code, your phone needs to be connected to a printer.
Android recipients of the code can scan the code using a third-party QR code reader.
iPhone recipients of the code can scan the code using their phone’s camera.
The admin can Revoke link at any time to make the previous invite link invalid and create a new link.
Note: Any WhatsApp user you share an invite link with can join the group, so only use this feature with trusted individuals. It’s possible for someone to forward the link to other people. If so, those other people can also join the group and the group admin won’t be asked to approve those people before they join.
