The government on Thursday reissued a warning to the company that it could face legal consequences if it remained a "mute spectator".
With more than 200 million users, India is WhatsApp's biggest market.
WhatsApp said its users in India "forward more messages, photos, and videos, than any other country in the world". Groups on WhatsApp can have a maximum of 256 people. Many of the messages that are believed to have triggered violence were forwarded to multiple groups which had more than 100 members each.
In a blog published on its website, the company announced that it was "launching a test to limit forwarding that will apply to everyone using WhatsApp". The company also said it would be removing the "quick forward button" next to messages containing pictures or video.
For Indian users, however, the forwarding option will be limited even further. A WhatsApp spokesperson for India told the BBC that this means a single person would be able to forward one message only five times.
These changes come in the wake of a series of mob lynchings that have seen at least 18 people killed across India since April 2018. Media reports put the number of dead higher.
The violence has been blamed on rumours of child kidnappings, spread over WhatsApp, which have led people to attack strangers.
Police say it is proving hard to get people to believe that the messages are false. In a recent lynching in the north-eastern state of Tripura, the victim was a man employed by the local government to go around villages to dispel rumours being spread on social media.
GUYS, WHAT DO YOU THINK?
FACEBOOK COMMENTS
Bukola Tunde
when stupid people start abusing technology the owners will be queried. let whatsapp ban them temporarily