On social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you can get the attention of someone by tagging/mentioning them using the “@” symbol. This has been in place for quite a while now, but it looks like WhatsApp has finally caught up. The feature has been in the beta and now it looks like it is live for all users.
How it works is pretty simple: type the “@” symbol and a list will pop up showing various names that you can choose from. It should be noted that this only works in group chats since messaging users individually will bring up the notification anyway. The list of names will also be the names from the group chat itself, so it’s not as if you’d have to scroll through your entire contact list to find the person you want to tag.
It will also work with users who aren’t on your contact list, so for example some group chats may contain numbers you never saved, but don’t worry as you’ll be able to tag them too. This feature seems to have been enabled server side as it does not appear to be an update to the app, so there should be no action needed on your part.
It is also reported to have gone live on both iOS and Android, so fire up the app and check out the feature if you haven’t done so already.