How to Make a Group Admin in WhatsApp (or Remove One)

How to make someone a group admin

This only works if you’re already an admin — regular members don’t see a Make Group Admin option anywhere in the app, on either platform, no matter how the group’s settings are configured.

1. Open Group Info. Tap the group name at the top of the chat to open it.
2. Scroll to Participants. Every member is listed here, and current admins are already labeled “Group admin” underneath their name.
3. Select Make Group Admin.
   Android: tap and hold the person’s name, then tap Make Group Admin from the menu that pops up. iPhone: tap the person’s name to open their contact card inside the group, then tap Make Group Admin near the bottom.
4. It’s instant. No confirmation step, no notice posted to the group, and no approval needed from the person being promoted — they just quietly gain the label and the permissions that come with it.

For groups big enough to need more than one moderator — the kind of setup you’d see running a large business WhatsApp group or a packed teachers’ WhatsApp group juggling dozens of parents — WhatsApp also has a bulk option: Group Settings > Edit Group Admins lets you tick several names at once instead of promoting people one at a time.

How to remove admin rights from someone (Dismiss as admin)

1. Open Group Info. Same starting point — tap the group name at the top.
2. Find the person under Participants. Their “Group admin” label confirms they currently hold the role.
3. Choose Dismiss as admin.
   Android: tap and hold their name, then tap Dismiss as admin. iPhone: tap their name, then tap Dismiss as admin from their contact card.
4. The label disappears immediately. They stay in the group as a regular member with their full message history intact — nothing else about their account or chat history changes.

How to change the group admin (transfer the role)

WhatsApp doesn’t have a single “transfer admin” button. Changing who holds the role is really the two actions above, done back to back: promote the new person, then decide what to do about your own admin status. Two ways that plays out in practice:

• Keep both as admins. Promote the new person and stop there — the safer option, since the group is never down to zero admins even for a moment.
• Hand it off completely. Promote the new admin, then either have someone dismiss you (you can’t dismiss your own admin status from your own menu) or exit the group once someone else can manage it.

How to remove yourself as admin without leaving

This is the one WhatsApp genuinely doesn’t have a button for. There’s no “stop being admin” option sitting in your own Group Info screen — Dismiss as admin only shows up on other people’s names, never your own.

Option 1, and the easiest by far: ask another admin to dismiss you the same way they’d dismiss anyone else — tap and hold your name (Android) or tap your name (iPhone) from their phone, then Dismiss as admin. Takes them ten seconds.

Option 2, if you’re the only admin and need out entirely:

1. Promote a replacement first, using the steps above. Never leave a group with zero admins behind.
2. Copy the invite link. Open Group Info, tap Invite via Link, and copy it before doing anything else.
3. Exit the group as normal, through Group Info > Exit Group.
4. Open the link you copied and rejoin. You’ll come back in as a regular participant, not an admin, since invite links only ever add people at member level.

Honestly, the simplest fix for most people is doing nothing at all — being an admin doesn’t obligate you to use any of the admin tools. If the only reason you want out is “people keep asking me to fix things,” just saying no works about as well as demoting yourself.

Can you become a WhatsApp group admin without permission?

No, not through the app itself. Every real path to becoming an admin runs through someone who already holds the role choosing to promote you, or through you creating the group yourself, which makes you the founding admin automatically — see our full walkthrough on how to create a WhatsApp group if that’s the route you actually want. Any tool, APK, or “admin hack” claiming to grant admin rights without one of those two things happening isn’t tapping into a hidden WhatsApp feature. At best it does nothing. At worst it’s asking for your login details or phone permissions it has no legitimate reason to need.

If you’re not an admin and genuinely need the powers — to remove a spammer, pin an announcement, or change the group name — the only real move is asking a current admin directly. Most groups show exactly who the admins are right in the Participants list, so you at least know who to message.

Bonus: how to change the group name as admin

Renaming a group usually needs admin rights too, since most groups restrict Edit Group Settings to admins by default — worth knowing before assuming the rename button is broken.

1. Open Group Info by tapping the group name.
2. Find the edit option.
   Android: tap the pencil icon next to the current name, or open the three-dot menu and choose Group Settings > Edit. iPhone: tap Edit in the top-right corner of the Group Info screen.
3. Clear the old name and type the new one. Emoji work fine if you want to include one.
4. Save it — tap the checkmark on Android or Done on iPhone. The new name updates for every participant immediately and posts a system message noting who changed it.

A themed rename like this comes up a lot right before exam season if you’re running something similar to our study WhatsApp groups listings — swapping the name to reflect the current subject or deadline keeps a long-running group from looking abandoned.

Common mistakes

• Assuming an old app version’s limits still apply. Some older WhatsApp builds blocked dismissing the group’s original creator specifically. Current versions let any admin dismiss any other admin, creator included.
• Expecting the promoted member to get a tutorial. WhatsApp doesn’t explain admin permissions to anyone — they find out by trial and error unless you tell them yourself what changed.
• Panicking when a group briefly shows no listed admin. WhatsApp automatically hands the role to a random remaining participant rather than leaving a group admin-less for good.
• Mixing up two separate menus. Group Settings controls who can edit the name, icon, and description, and who can send messages. The Participants-level Make/Dismiss admin actions are a different menu entirely, controlling a different thing.
• Assuming more admins alone fixes a quiet group. Moderation and engagement are different problems — pair admin changes with the habits in our guide on making a WhatsApp group more active if the real issue is that nobody’s talking.