WhatsApp’s mentions feature was launched in 2016 as part of the Facebook-owned company’s efforts to improve how you interact with your friends in a group chat. By just affixing “@” to the name of a contact, you can sort of tag someone in your message, indicating that it is directly addressed to them.
This week, the mentions feature received a new update as part of WhatsApp’s 2.18.12 beta program for Android, which introduces several new features including mentions notifications. This particular feature notifies a member of the group whenever he or she is tagged in a message. Clicking on the notification will bring you to the group where you have been mentioned.
WABetaInfo was first to spot the update and it shared screenshots of the new features. In addition to the mention notifications, the update also includes new stickers and security notifications.
Keep in mind, though, that these features remain unstable as they’re part of a beta program, so expect crashes and other malfunctions. It remains to be seen, though, when WhatsApp rolls out the stable version.
