[Solution] You Can’t Change This Setting Because The Maximum Group Capacity Of 256 Participants Was Exceeded

The error “you can’t change this setting because the maximum group capacity of 256 participants was exceeded” comes when you are about to change your WhatsApp group setting “choose who can send messages to this group” to “All participants” after reaching the normal WhatsApp group limit of 256 members.

In this article, i will show you how you can solve this problem if possible and make members be able to send messages to your group.

What causes “you can’t change this setting because the maximum group capacity of 256 participants was exceeded”

As the formal WhatsApp was, no members can join your WhatsApp group after the number of members in the group is already 256 and sometimes may be 257 but due to some updates to WhatsApp, they remove the maximum number of participants that can join a WhatsApp group from 256/257 an changed it to 512 as it was announced on the official WhatsApp blog post on the 5th of May, 2022.

WhatsApp has expressed its commitment to making it possible for private and safe experiences for its communities which is very essential for all online platforms and social medias. The group limit increase is likely to be more business oriented and what people would have wanted.

WhatsApp Business differs from regular WhatsApp as businesses have different needs and usage of the platform than individual users. But while that’s the case, it’s hard to see why teams would want to use WhatsApp for high-capacity groups instead of email and the like. In addition to more capacity for group chats, WhatsApp has also added emoji reactions. This is helpful in large groups as it helps avoid clutter and makes it easier to track important messages.

Which means you can now add up to 512 members in a WhatsApp group which is the double of the previous restriction. This restriction of participants in a WhatsApp group was just to prevent too much messages from participants, somehow right?.

Just come to think of it, just imagine if you have up to 1000 participants in a WhatsApp group and 1000 participants are active or online talking in the group, you as one user who has your mobile data active but not with them in the group conversation but keeps receiving message notifications from the group every second, you will surely be disturbed or annoyed about the frequent message.

Solution To “You Can’t Change This Setting Because The Maximum Group Capacity Of 256 Participants Was Exceeded”

1. Continue using  the setting “Only admin can send message”

If you don’t really need other group participants to talk or chat in the group, you can continue using the setting only admin can send message just to communicate to your group members or pass some important message across to them.

2. Reduce the number of member in the group and move them to another division of the group

Another solution is to divide the group in to two and add part of the first to the second removing them from the first group.

I know this solution might be very stressful and also very difficult to carry out but I can boldly tell you it is one of the best solution the the problem as at now just to make your group up and running and make members communicate with themselves publicly in the group.

3. Switch to Telegram if possible

According to Telegram FAQs on their website, with telegram you can have up to 200,000 members in which it support replies, members’ mentions and hashtags that can really help you maintain your group order and make the group communication in large communities or large business  more efficient. This may be another alternative option apart from WhatsApp groups.

Don’t forget to drop you comment about this issue for more help and you can also drop your own solution if you have any just for other people to learn from you, thank you.