New Delhi: WhatsApp is adding new restrictions on the number of messages that users and businesses can send to non-responsive people as part of the latest move by Meta to prevent spam and abuse on its popular messaging platform. Having more than 3 billion users globally, WhatsApp has turned into a platform of political advertising, spam, and scams, even though previously the platform was covered with a range of restrictions, such as a limitation on messaging forwarding and reporting functions. The company assured that it will begin testing in a number of countries in the next few weeks, but it has yet to specify the limit.

In accordance with this new policy, all the messages that are sent to an individual who has not responded will be counted against a monthly quota. The number of unanswered follow-ups sent to a contact will be counted as three messages as an example. According to Meta, the update will not affect regular users who chat occasionally, but it will affect bulk senders and accounts with a high spam volume who often contact unresponsive recipients.

Targeting spam and unsolicited marketing

The action is based on the recent experiments of WhatsApp to address spammy behaviour. The platform also introduced monthly business marketing message limits, which started being tested in July 2024, and it also started limiting broadcast messages earlier this year. These are currently being extended to more than a dozen countries, such as India, which is the largest market of WhatsApp with more than 500 million users.

The new limitation precedes one more significant feature, that is, the support of usernames. This will allow users to interact without providing their phone numbers, a significant privacy improvement but a source of new spam concerns. Combining usernames with more severe message restrictions will help Meta focus on a better delineation between genuine and spam communication. The real problem that will come about will be ensuring that spammers do not discover another loophole.