WhatsApp update adds easy way to check whether users are being ignored by everyone

You can now scan through all of your silent friends at once, and tell if they're ignoring you or are just asleep

Zuckerberg told Brazilians to use Facebook Messenger while WhatsApp is blocked (GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)

WhatsApp has added a new feature, allowing people to check whether their friends are ignoring them all at once.

An update to the app allows people to see the blue and grey ticks on the chat page, without clicking into individual threads. That means those ticks, which indicate whether or not a message has been received and read, can all be viewed at once.

Previously, users had to click into a message and look at it to tell what its status was.

WhatsApp communicates whether a message has been read through a series of ticks: one means that the message has sent, two grey ones mean that it’s arrived on the recipient’s phone, and two blue ticks means that the recipient has read it.

(If someone has read receipts turned off, then only the grey ticks will ever show. That can be done by heading to the app, selecting settings, account and then privacy, and turning off read receipts.)

The update is found in the new released version of WhatsApp, which should be available for update now.