WhatsApp to label forwarded messages to fight fake news

WhatsApp has announced that the app will be labeling forwarded messages in one-on-one and group chats. This will help users figure out if the messages being sent to them was written by the person who sent them the message, or it's a forwarded message.

The change will help WhatsApp fight the circulation of fake news, which is becoming a big issue on its platform, especially in India. This will be a welcomed change as India is the biggest market for the messaging app. The labels will only appear on the latest version of WhatsApp. So if you're using the older version of the app, it's time to get the latest version from Google Play.

Forwarded messages aren't something new to WhatsApp, the feature has been available on the app for a long time now. But previously, there wasn't any label to indicate whether the message was forwarded or not. This made it harder to determine if the message was new or taken from another chat. It isn't much of an upgrade, but if someone is posting news, it helps the user know whether it was forwarded or brand new.

The company hopes that the new change will help combat fake news and misinformation, which has been an issue for the platform since 2016 when the US Presidential Election took place. This was also the first time the term "fake news" was coined.

WhatsApp, even before rolling out the new feature, urged its users to think before forwarding a message to someone else. This will make sure that the users remain safe, as well as the contacts on their phone. The platform also offers its users the liberty to block or mark someone as spam to keep their inbox safe and clean.

WhatsApp previously announced that it'll continue to support Android 2.3.7 and older versions of Gingerbread until February 1, 2020.

Since the Android Gingerbread was launched in 2010, WhatsApp will officially support the OS for ten years. This sort of support is rarely seen on any other platforms. Although the company only has 0.3 percent support from the phones running the dated OS, WhatsApp continues to do so anyway.

As for the users with iPhones, WhatsApp will continue to support iOS 7 through that same date. Recently, WhatsApp also added a new feature to its app. The latest feature to be added to WhatsApp is called Predicted Upload. This feature will make it easier for you to upload and send pictures via the platform. It was spotted by WABetaInfo, a fansite that tracks and tests new features.