WhatsApp Expands Private Mentions in Status to All Users

WhatsApp’s rolled out its new “Private Mentions” for Status to all users, which provides another way to generate interest in your temporary updates.

WhatsApp Status, the messaging app’s variation of Stories, enables you post photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. And while it hasn’t been as big a hit as Stories has been on Instagram, it has become a popular connection option for many users.

And now you’ll have another way to spark engagement with your Status updates.

As outlined in the above video, WhatsApp’s Private Mentions, which it announced earlier in the month, enable you to tag users in your Status post. When you publish, those users will then be notified that you mentioned them, but they won’t be mentioned in the post itself, they’ll just get a prompt in their inbox that you’ve mentioned their @handle to get their attention.

You can mention up to five people in a single Status update, and any WhatsApp user can mention another in a Status, not just your contacts. When you mention someone in your Status, they’ll be able to see your post, even if they aren’t in your status audience.

It’s another way to drive engagement with Status notes, and get more users to interact, and it could be a good option to make specific people aware of what you’re up to, and get them involved.

It could also be a way to expand the reach of your Status updates, by getting them to re-share the post themselves, which could be of benefit to brands and influencers.

Though it might also get annoying too, if you get mentioned too often. That’ll come down to the individual, but you can see how regular prompts like this could quickly get boring, and push users away.

But there could be benefit, and it might be worth experimenting with the feature to see how it works, and if/how it expands your reach.

The option is available in the latest version of WhatsApp.