WhatsApp is making an attempt to resolve its spam drawback by placing a curb on what number of messages particular person customers and companies can ship to unknown individuals with out getting a response.

Whereas the app began as a straightforward approach to ship messages to private contacts, over time, it has turn out to be extra advanced with teams, communities, and enterprise messaging. With these adjustments, individuals are getting extra messages than ever, and it’s onerous to meet up with all of them.

All messages customers and companies ship to others will depend towards this new per-month restrict, until they get a response. As an example, should you meet somebody at a convention and ship three messages, that counts towards the restrict.

WhatsApp hasn’t mentioned what the restrict will likely be, because it’s testing totally different limits throughout this time.

Nevertheless, when a enterprise or a person is about to hit the restrict, the app will show a warning to these customers with a pop-up exhibiting the depend, to allow them to keep away from getting blocked from sending messages.

The corporate informed TechCrunch that this check will likely be stay in a number of international locations within the coming weeks. It additionally mentioned that common customers gained’t often hit the restrict, and their messaging expertise gained’t be affected. As a substitute, the controls are designed to be efficient towards individuals and companies that blast messages and spam individuals.

Personally, once I have a look at my WhatsApp inbox, I usually discover over 50 unread messages. When I attempt to see who despatched them, a lot of them are from companies and unknown individuals. Folks round me have had related experiences as WhatsApp acts as a multi-use communication instrument for a market like India, the place I’m primarily based.

Over the past 12 months, WhatsApp has tried to curb a few of this spammy behaviour by instruments and guardrails. In July 2024, the corporate began testing limits on what number of advertising messages a enterprise can ship to individuals in a month. In 2024, it began floating an possibility for customers to unsubscribe from advertising messages from companies. This manner, they will obtain updates or get help from a enterprise with out getting spammed.

Earlier this 12 months, WhatsApp began experimenting by placing a restrict on the variety of broadcast messages customers and companies can ship to others. The corporate mentioned that it has began increasing this experiment in additional than a dozen international locations, together with India, one of many firm’s largest markets with over 500 million customers.