The new online counter appears at the top of group chats to show how many people in the group have WhatsApp open and are online. This replaces the old feature that showed a summary of who was typing or recording a message.
Now, you can quickly see how many members are active in the group at any moment. This feature helps you to understand when it might be a good time to send a message or start a conversation.
Notably, the online counter only includes members who haven’t turned off their online status option in their privacy settings. If a user has hidden their online status, they won’t be counted, which ensures their privacy.
This feature can be especially useful in busy groups, as it lets you know when most people are online. Currently, the online counter is available to some beta testers, and it will gradually be rolled out to more users in the coming weeks.
Source: WhatsApp introduces online counter for group chats
