WhatsApp will curb the number of messages people and businesses can send without a response

WhatsApp is trying to solve its spam problem by controlling how many messages individual users and businesses can send to unknown people without receiving a response.

While the app started out as a simple way to send messages to personal contacts, over time, it has become more complex with group, community and business messaging. With these changes, people are getting more messages than ever before, and it’s hard to catch them all

All messages users and businesses send to others will count against this new per-month limit, unless they receive a response. For example, if you meet someone at a conference and send three messages, that counts against the limit.

WhatsApp has not said what the limit will be, as it is testing different limits in the meantime.

However, when a business or individual is about to exceed the limit, the app will display an alert with a pop-up number showing those users, so they can avoid being blocked from sending messages.

The company told TechCrunch that the test will go live in multiple countries next week. It also said that average users will generally not exceed the limit and their messaging experience will not be affected. Instead, the controls are designed to be effective against people and businesses that blast messages and spam people.

When I check my WhatsApp inbox, I often find more than 50 unread messages. When I try to see who sent them, several of them are businessmen and unknown people. People around me have had similar experiences, as WhatsApp serves as a multi-purpose communication tool for a market like India, where I live.

Over the past year, WhatsApp has tried to control some of this spammy behavior with tools and safeguards. In July 2024, the company began testing the limits of marketing A business can send messages to people in a month. In 2024, it started floating an option for users Unsubscribe from marketing messages from Business. That way, they can get updates or get support from the business without being spammed.

At the beginning of this year, WhatsApp started testing A limit on the number of broadcast messages users and businesses can send to others. The company said it has begun expanding the test to more than a dozen countries, including India, one of the company’s largest markets with 500 million users.