WhatsApp has started to trial a new feature designed to stop the spread of misinformation on the immensely-popular chat app, which boasts more than two billion users worldwide. From today, you’ll be able to quickly search the contents of a WhatsApp message with a single tap to make sure that you haven’t been duped by a viral text which has been forwarded or copy-pasted between thousands of people worldwide.
The new feature appears in the form of a magnifying glass icon next to the text message. Tapping this will trigger a web search using your default web browser and search engine on the device. Crucially, the magnifying glass symbol will only appear next to messages which have been forwarded more than five times – or passed by five people prior to being sent to you.
WhatsApp has flagged highly-forwarded messages for some time now. Since the messaging service is end-to-end encrypted, the team at WhatsApp are unable to read any of the contents of your texts – something that makes weeding out misinformation a little tougher. According to research by WhatsApp, text messages which have been forwarded to high volumes of people without any tweaks are the most likely to be problematic.
In a screenshot shared by WhatsApp to demonstrate how its latest tool to help combat misinformation works inside the app, it’s possible to read a highly-forwarded text that reads: “Drinking fresh boiled garlic water will cure COVID-19,” followed by a web link. Since the text is flagged as “Forwarded” – denoting that it has been shared with five contacts or more – WhatsApp lets the smartphone owner launch a Google search. In the example, this immediately returns three fact-checking websites that flag this garlic-related claim as nonsense.