One of the most used messaging applications worldwide, WhatsApp has been improving in functionality with new updates that have sparked buzz among its users. Like Instagram, the development of WhatsApp has quietly incorporated other feature elements, including music in status updates, custom lists of emoji, and many more ways of interaction among users within the application.
The new tools in this context are in the testing phase and promise to bring an even better user experience with the app. Here are some recent WhatsApp changes and what they could be looking like for users worldwide.
Music in Status Updates and Emoji Lists: A Personal Touch
According to Android Police, the new features that WhatsApp has rolled out tend to bring the app closer to Instagram, another Meta-owned platform by allowing one to customize statuses with more options.
Currently, the most noticeable feature under test is music in status updates. This feature would enable users to add a soundtrack to their statuses as if they were on Instagram Stories so friends and family get a fuller sense of the vibe behind the desire for something.
There should be a feature called customized emojis, which would let users access some of their most used icons quickly, even when they are updating their statuses or replying to messages.
These updates add personality to WhatsApp statuses, making them more engaging and expressive, and could attract millions of users to the feature, especially those young users who are accustomed to Instagram-like functionality.
'Search on Web' and Gallery Shortcuts
For the chattiest users - that is, people who attach images often, WhatsApp is offering a "Search on Web" choice for images so users can begin image searches via Google Lens directly from the screen of the chat. It lets them point out objects or landmarks in photos with a much quicker convenience, bringing this potentially powerful tool directly into the app.
The app also attempted a shortcut directly into a user's gallery to make sharing photos and videos easier. Rather than making a few taps through menus, users will be able to quickly open up the app that stores their photos and videos, which should speed up the process of sending media to friends and family.
All these new features look toward making media sharing on WhatsApp faster, easier, and friendlier to find, send, and interact with images and videos.
Polls and "Add Yours" for Interactive Updates
WhatsApp also brings interactivity to status updates with new content stickers. One of them is the "poll" sticker, still in beta testing, that lets users add multiple-choice polls directly into the status update. This will be an interactive feature: contacts will then vote on questions set within a status update.
Polls have been in WhatsApp chats already, but this will be the first time that it can be used for status updating, which will make it possible for use in a larger sense.
Other much-awaited features currently being developed include the "Add Yours" sticker-like feature on Instagram, which was first introduced last year. The sticker has users add their own answers to a prompt, in this case, within a group or collaborative format.
However, unlike its Instagram sibling, WhatsApp will be doing things differently by making it more personal. Answers to an "Add Yours" status update will only be seen by the original poster and those chosen contacts, hence interactions will remain confidential and end-to-end encrypted.
Going Forward at WhatsApp: What's in Store?
As such, the "poll" and "Add Yours" stickers are available only to beta users, and no release date has been confirmed yet for their release to all users.
With these additions, WhatsApp is clearly very much moving toward an even more interactive and versatile platform that can really engage users through dynamic, social-media-like features.
The focus on privacy remains strong, however, as Meta ensured that even the interactive features of WhatsApp remain encrypted, thus keeping the data safe.
