About forwarding limits
You can forward messages to up to five people or groups at a time.
If you’re forwarding a message or update that was forwarded to you, it can only be shared with one additional group chat.
If a message or update is forwarded through a chain of five or more chats it will:
- Be labeled as: "Forwarded many times."
- Show the icon.
This helps keep conversations on WhatsApp intimate and personal. This also limits and helps prevent spamming and misinformation.
If you want to share content with multiple users in your network, we suggest creating a group chat or sharing links. Learn about creating a group.
Forwards are end-to-end encrypted
WhatsApp messages contain a counter that keeps track of how many times a message is forwarded. This counter is end-to-end encrypted, so WhatsApp can’t tell how many times a message is forwarded. End-to-end encryption means only yours and the recipient’s device can access this information.
As always, WhatsApp can't see the content of any of your personal messages in end-to-end encrypted chats. While channel updates are public, when you choose to forward them to individual and group chats, these forwarded updates are end-to-end encrypted.
Learn more about end-to-end encryption.
Troubleshooting issues with forwarding limits
If you’re having issues with forwarding messages and haven’t reached the forwarding limit, we recommend you:
- Restart your phone, or turn it off and on.
- Update WhatsApp to the latest version.
- Update your phone to the latest version.
- Try connecting to mobile data if you're on Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi if you're on mobile data. If that doesn’t work, try these connection troubleshooting steps.
Related resources:
- How to forward messages
- How to forward channel updates
