News
WhatsApp update: This group chat feature for Android is finally coming to iOS

- January 7, 2019
- Updated: July 2, 2025 at 5:33 AM


WhatsApp group chats are great. They put us in contact with lots of different people, all at the same time. This is great if you have something to announce to your friends and family but can be a little frustrating when you have something more private to say. To address this issue, back in October, WhatsApp released a Reply Privately feature for WhatsApp on Android. It now looks like this feature is finally coming to WhatsApp on iOS, too.
The Reply Privately feature has been spotted in the latest beta version of WhatsApp for iOS
The Reply Privately feature does what you would expect it to. If you would like to respond to a group message without everybody else knowing what you’ve said, the Reply Privately feature allows you to do so. When the feature receives a wide roll-out to all WhatsApp users on iOS, all participants in groups will be able to respond to messages privately. WhatsApp for iOS previously included a more limited Reply Privately, which only allowed users to reply privately to messages from groups they’d previously left.
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Read nowThe feature has been spotted in the iOS beta version of WhatsApp by the guys over at WABetaInfo and they describe it as working in the same way on iOS as it does on Android.
To reply to a group message privately all you have to do is select the message and then tap the three dots icon to open up the message menu. If you then tap the Reply Privately button, you’ll be taken to the personal chat window for that particular contact and the message from the group chat will be quoted. In the quote, the name of the group will also be included next to the name of the contact you’re replying to.

All Android users can already use this feature and it has now come to the phones of members of the WhatsApp iOS beta program. According to the report by WABetaInfo, the Reply Privately feature should be a part of the official WhatsApp for iOS update 2.19.10 when that finally hits the app store.
It isn’t often that Android WhatsApp users get the new features before iOS users, but this might just be the exception that proves the rule. If you’d like to sign up for the WhatsApp beta program so that you can get your hands on all the latest WhatsApp features before anybody else, you can do so by clicking the link below and following the simple tutorial we’ve prepared. We’ve also prepared a simple tutorial for signing up to the beta program of many of your other favorite apps, too. You can find that tutorial at the bottom of the page.
How to try new features on WhatsApp before anybody else
Learn How
How to test beta versions of apps
Read nowPatrick Devaney is a news reporter for Softonic, keeping readers up to date on everything affecting their favorite apps and programs. His beat includes social media apps and sites like Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, and Snapchat. Patrick also covers antivirus and security issues, web browsers, the full Google suite of apps and programs, and operating systems like Windows, iOS, and Android.
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