WhatsApp is trialling an optional date-of-birth prompt for users in India to comply with the country’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, while introducing new features to enhance group chat management.
WhatsApp has begun testing an optional date-of-birth prompt for users in India as it prepares for new age-verification requirements under the country’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act. According to NDTV Profit, the feature appeared in screenshots shared online before the company confirmed it was being trialled with a limited set of users. The prompt asks people to add their date of birth, with WhatsApp saying the move is intended to help it comply with upcoming Indian law while keeping the process privacy-protective.
The company says the trial does not change the way the app functions and that users can continue using WhatsApp without entering their date of birth during the testing phase. It also says age information will not be shared with other users. The change comes as India prepares to bring into force provisions of the DPDP Act that require services processing children’s personal data to use age-verification methods and determine whether a user is under 18.
The test also lands during a period of closer scrutiny of Meta’s India operations. Earlier this week, Meta apologised after Facebook briefly restricted a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi about examination paper leaks, while the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has separately asked WhatsApp to hold back its username feature over concerns about impersonation and digital fraud.
At the same time, WhatsApp is rolling out a broader set of group-chat tools aimed at making large conversations easier to manage. The company is updating polls so they can close automatically at a chosen time, letting admins or participants reach a decision before a deadline. It is also adding an option to hide voter names and a short window for editing poll questions, which should reduce errors and limit unnecessary friction in fast-moving chats.
Another change gives admins more control over the @all mention in groups with more than 32 members, where the tag will be limited to admins. WhatsApp also says users can mute those alerts through notification settings. In addition, it is making it simpler to start a smaller spin-off chat from an existing group, a feature that could help users split planning discussions from the main thread. These changes build on earlier additions such as group message history, member tags and event reminders, while other recent updates across the platform have included online indicators for group chats, expanded events support and parent-supervised accounts for younger users.
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