WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in the world,
used by over 1.2 billion people worldwide and 200 million in India alone.
Despite its success, the Facebook-owned company has not become complacent and
always keeps the competition on its toes by releasing new features every few
weeks. 2017, of course, saw the overhauled WhatsApp Status (an aping of
Snapchat), but there have been many other small updates this year that didn't
get as much attention. From increased
media sharing limit to video streaming, we take a look at all the new WhatsApp
features released this year alone. While going down this memory lane, we’ve
ranked features in the order that we feel made the most impact (or will make,
if in beta) in user experience.
1. New revamped Snapchat-like Status feature
Perhaps, one of the most important updates this year, the
new Status feature was rolled out to all users globally in February. The new
WhatsApp Status feature replaced the old text form of status to allow users to
change their status to a short video or multiple photos that will automatically
disappear in 24 hours. Even though this feature was clearly introduced to
combat Snapchat competition, it overhauled the way users interacted on the app
daily.
2. Media sharing limit increased to 30
This change is significant because WhatsApp is one of the
primary platforms for media sharing after an event, get-together, or any social
meeting where pictures and videos are taken. The media limit was first at 10,
and this increase to 30 was a welcome change by all users. It was first spotted
in Android beta in January, but was later rolled out on all platforms
eventually.
3. Recall or Revoke feature
This feature is still not out in the stable version, but has
been spotted on various occasions. It’s important on a chat app because it lets
you recall sent messages. The feature in the many possible forms it could
arrive would allow users to recall or 'unsend' messages they have been sent to
their contacts, or even edit them. The feature, was earlier seen on iPhone beta
version, and was also spotted recently on WhatsApp Web as well.
4. Two-step verification
This feature was rolled out in February to all users as an
optional security feature. With this feature, users are now able to verify
their number when they install the app on a new device more securely. Users
will have to provide a six-digit passcode (created by them using this feature)
when registering their phone number with WhatsApp again - or any attempt to
verify their phone number through the app. To know how to setup two-step
verification, follow the step-by-step guide here.
5. All file type transfer
The company is slowly rolling out support for all types of
file transfers (including archives) on Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone with
a limited number of users, removing any hindrance of file sharing on WhatsApp.
This new feature will now allow you to share video in a wide variety of
formats, MP3 songs, or even APK files for that matter on WhatsApp. The file
sharing limit will still be at 128MB on iOS, 64MB on Web, and 100MB on Android.
6. Ability to queue messages on iPhone
While WhatsApp had this ability on Android for a while now,
iPhone users finally got it in January. This ability to queue messages even
when in areas of poor or no connectivity was a big miss for iPhone users, as it
prevented them to send messages at all in areas of poor connectivity. Now, all
users can just send a WhatsApp message to a group/individual even when
connectivity is unavailable, and the message will be sent automatically once
they get connectivity again.
7. Reincarnation of Text Status
After the introduction of the new Status feature, support
for the old Text Status feature was ended. This created a huge uproar among
users, and the feature was then brought back on popular demand. The feature is
now available for iPhone and Android users both.
8. Photo Bundling, Video Streaming, Photo Filter features
WhatsApp introduced some nifty features to elevate media
sharing. This includes photo bundling into an album, video streaming, and photo
filters. The Photo Bundling feature allows users to send photos and videos to
your contacts as an album. WhatsApp users can now send a bunch of photos to
their friends, who will receive them bundled as an album and not as before, one
after another. Once the album is opened, all images are shown on a single page.
The feature is already available for iPhone users and is in beta for Android
users.
The video streaming feature was first spotted in Android
beta, but was rolled out in the stable version to iPhone users first. This
feature allows its users to watch shared videos while they're being downloaded
in the background. It will use your Wi-Fi or cellular data to buffer a shared
video, while it's still in the downloading process in the background. Earlier,
WhatsApp users had to wait until a video gets completely downloaded to watch it
- depending upon WhatsApp auto-download setting.
Recently, WhatsApp also added the ability to add colour
filters to the media that you send in chats for iPhone users. Head to WhatsApp,
go to the individual or group chat that you want to send the media to, capture or
select a photo, video, or GIF, and swipe up. Swiping up will pull out five
photo filters that you can choose from. These are Pop, B&W, Cool, Film, and
Chrome, but we expect WhatsApp to add more in the future.
9. Night Mode, Quick Reply button, and ability for Siri to
read messages out loud
For iPhone users, WhatsApp recently introduced a new night
mode feature for its camera for low-light photography. Interestingly, the Night
Mode icon appears by default only when the camera sensor detects low-light conditions,
and not otherwise.
In April, WhatsApp also gave more abilities to Siri. Four
key highlights include - you can ask Siri to read out your latest messages;
visual improvements to the Calls tab, Contact info, and Group info screens;
ability to select multiple statuses at once in the My Updates screen which you
can forward and delete; and support for Persian language.
Another iPhone-only feature was the Quick Reply feature that
allowed users to reply to an individual just by swiping right on a specific
text in chats. This reply shortcut is particularly useful in group chats where
you speak to multiple users at once.
10. Chat improvements
To improve the basic handling of chat and the way you
communicate with the screen while chatting, WhatsApp has made several tweaks
this year. Most notable is that Android users got a new separate video call
button and saw the relocation of the attachment button. Earlier, the video
calling feature was hidden within or grouped with the voice calling button, and
one would need to tap twice in order to choose video calling from a pop-up
menu. The attachment button was relocated to the bottom within the text bar.
You'll now see the little attachment feature right next to the camera icon in
the text bar. Notably, the text bar too got a new look with rounded corners
rather than the square-shaped box of old.
With the new Pinned Chats feature introduced in May for
Android users, WhatsApp allowed pinning of up to three contacts on top of rest
of the conversations. WhatsApp is also testing a new feature that lets you send
multiple contacts at once. Earlier, users were limited to send just one contact
at a time, but now that limit has been revoked. This feature was spotted on
Android beta, and should roll out for everyone soon.
Spotted in Android beta was also emoji search that brings
the ability to search for emojis based on keywords. This nifty feature was
first possible through third-party apps, but now the ability is coming to the
in-app keyboard as well. There were also new font shortcuts spotted in beta for
bold, italics, and strike through. This would remove the need to add text
inside asterisks while typing for making it bold, or type phrase between
underscores to italicise.
11. Change Number and Live Location feature
Lastly but importantly, WhatsApp was recently reported to be
testing a new feature on the Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile platform that
could make life less painful when changing your contact number. In trying to
ease the transition, it is testing a feature that will notify your friends and
family about your number change for you. The Live Location sharing feature was
also spotted on Android beta, hinting that it will make its way to WhatsApp
soon. This will presumably turn location sharing on as a broadcast - enabling
contacts to see each other on a map
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