Did WhatsApp secretly change group invite setting to “Everyone”?

A message spreading on social media claims that due to recent changes to WhatsApp privacy settings, users can now be invited to join WhatsApp groups by anybody. The message purports to show instructions on how to change this.

MIXTURE

Examples of the message as it appears on social media are below –

WhatsApp settings have changed…
Mine definitely had…
WhatsApp has changed its group settings to include “everyone” by default so people you don’t know can add you to a group without your knowing. These people may include scam messages, loan Sharks, etc. You can change its default settings as follows:
1. Go to WhatsApp:
2. Go into Settings
3. Go to Account
4. Go to Privacy
5. Go to Groups
6. Change from (Everyone) to (My Contacts)
This is true. I have checked mine & all settings had been changed to everyone instead of my contacts

Just copied from a friend – I checked mine and yep it had included everyone!
This is not a joke… I’ve just updated mine
Whatsapp updated your settings last night!!!
Liverpool Crimewatch have advised your WhatsApp settings have changed overnight…
Mine definitely had…
WhatsApp has changed its group settings to include “everyone” by default so people you don’t know can add you to a group without your knowing. These people may include scam messages, loan Sharks, etc. You can change its default settings as follows:
1. Go to WhatsApp:
2. Go into Settings
3. Go to Account
4. Go to Privacy
5. Go to Groups
6. Change from (Everyone) to (My Contacts)
This is true. I have checked mine & all settings had been changed to everyone instead of my contacts

What’s true? The messages above are describing a real privacy setting in WhatsApp, and the instructions provided in the messages genuinely do describe how to change this setting to a more secure alternative.

What’s false? The claim that this is all down to some recent settings change by WhatsApp. In fact, these particular privacy options were introduced back in 2019, and the “everyone” option has always been the default option. There has been no recent or “overnight” change.

What’s misleading or perhaps unclear is the assertion in the messages above that anyone can add you to a WhatsApp group. It is pertinent to note that a person adding you to a group would still need to have your phone number.

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Prior to 2019, anyone could invite anyone else to a WhatsApp messaging group, providing they had their phone number. However due to customer feedback, a new set of privacy settings were introduced in April 2019 that could allow users to have more control over who can invite them into groups. The settings were publicised by WhatsApp on its blog.

These new settings would allow users to choose who could add them to groups. The options (revised) are
– Everyone,
– My Contacts (i.e. people you have in your address book) or
– My Contact Except… (same as above but you can exclude individual accounts.)

As soon as these new settings were introduced in 2019, the default option was Everyone (as such, no different to how WhatsApp operated prior to these settings existing.)

For optimal privacy, it is recommended to select My Contacts instead. The messages spreading on social media provide accurate instructions on how to do this.

But be aware that this isn’t some overnight change to how WhatsApp settings work. Most users have not actively changed this privacy option, and as such have been using the Everyone setting [most likely] since they started using WhatsApp.

Any claim or implication that the default option was My Contacts and this was changed to Everyone by WhatsApp is false (on our own accounts that we did change to My Contacts, My Contacts was still the selected option.) Additionally any claim that these privacy settings are new are also false.

We rank the claim as a whole as Mixture.