Facebook-owned WhatsApp accidentally rolled out the 'Reply Privately' feature in a beta update for Windows Phone that lets users send a private message to a user in a group without anyone else knowing about it.

According to WABetaInfo, which first spotted the feature, the hotly-anticipated feature is under development and will soon be rolled out to everyone with other features as well. The feature appeared and was subsequently dropped from the beta version of the app. Later it was confirmed that the developers wrongly enabled the feature.

'Reply Privately' is a feature that will allow users to reply privately to a group message. Now, a person in a group will get an option to message a particular member which other members can’t see. This feature was spotted in the WhatsApp Web version.

"In the new WhatsApp beta for Windows Phone 2.17.344, the private reply feature is disabled. Probably WhatsApp has wrongly enabled it in 2.17.342," WABetaInfo tweeted.

WABetaInfo says that the option will only be available in group chats and will be included in the small menu that pops-up when users press and hold on a message.

Earlier this month, WABetaInfo leaked the details of the features that WhatsApp was developing for web and desktop, including tap to unblock and a picture-in-picture (PIP) mode. The PiP feature enables users to multitask while taking a video call.