WhatsApp has added an @all mention that sends a notification to every member of a group chat at the same time. The feature has been available for years on other messaging apps like Discord, Slack, and Microsoft Teams Engadget.

To use it, you type @all in the message box, tap the suggestion that pops up, write your message, and send it. Everyone in the group gets a notification. WhatsApp's help center explains the steps here. In groups with more than 32 members, only group admins can use the @all ping Engadget. That limit is likely there to stop people from spamming large groups with notifications that would buzz dozens or hundreds of phones at once.

One thing worth knowing: @all pings still send notifications even if you have muted the group chat. But you can turn off just the @all pings separately in your notification settings, while keeping the rest of the group muted Engadget. This gives you a way to silence mass pings without missing everything else in the group.

WhatsApp also shipped a few other group-chat improvements alongside @all. Polls can now have an end time for voting and an option for anonymous responses. Poll creators get a 15-minute window to fix typos or change the question after posting. The app also added a quick-split feature: you can create a smaller sub-group from an existing chat with a single tap, which is handy for side conversations that would otherwise clutter the main group Engadget.

These additions build on a steady series of group-chat updates. In April 2025, WhatsApp introduced a "Notify for" setting that lets users limit group notifications to just mentions, replies, and messages from saved contacts, or choose "All" to get everything WhatsApp Blog. In January 2026, the platform added customizable member tags that describe someone's role within a group, and the tag can be set differently for each group WhatsApp Blog. A dedicated @ button for catching up on mentions and replies was also introduced at an unspecified date WhatsApp Blog. A status-update feature lets users mention a group, which notifies all members who can then reshare the status WhatsApp Blog.

The @all ping is not a new idea. Facebook Messenger introduced @ mentions back in March 2017, letting users notify someone by typing the @ symbol or the first few letters of a name Meta Newsroom. Slack, Discord, and Teams have long offered similar features. Discord and Slack even have two versions: @here, which pings only people currently active, and @everyone, which pings all members. WhatsApp's version does not make that distinction.

The broader context here is that WhatsApp is slowly catching up to the kind of tools that workplace apps like Slack and Teams already offer. WhatsApp has always focused on being simple and fast, rather than packing in detailed notification and moderation controls. The admin-only restriction for large groups, the separate mute for @all pings, and the "Notify for" setting all suggest WhatsApp is trying to give group organizers more control without making the app too complicated for everyday users who make up most of its audience. Whether that balance holds as groups get bigger and busier is the open question.

Meta has also been extending the @-mention idea beyond group chats. In July 2026, the company announced "Muse Image," which lets users generate images in Meta AI by @-mentioning public Instagram accounts Meta Newsroom. The @ symbol is becoming a shared way to interact across Meta's apps, linking WhatsApp groups, Instagram, and Meta AI.

The poll improvements address real annoyances that have existed since polls launched. Anonymous voting removes social pressure when a group needs to make a sensitive decision. An end time for votes lets organizers set a deadline rather than leaving a poll open forever. The 15-minute edit window is narrow on purpose: short enough to stop someone from changing a question after people have already voted, but long enough to fix a typo or clarify the wording.

The group-split feature is the smallest addition but arguably the most useful day-to-day. Anyone in a large WhatsApp group has seen the pattern: a conversation starts that only involves two or three people but fills up the main chat for everyone else. One-tap subgroup creation makes it easy to move that conversation to its own space.

Taken together, these updates show WhatsApp is serious about making group chats easier to manage. The app is not turning into a Slack replacement, but it is steadily picking up the notification and organization tools that make running a large group less chaotic. For the many community groups, organizations, and families that rely on WhatsApp every day, that steady improvement has genuine value.