WhatsApp hasn’t been a segment leader in terms of features because it often trails our favorite chat apps like Telegram, but improvement is perennial as the app evolves with new functionality added or tested in the beta versions almost every week.
However, it can be difficult to keep track of all the changes, especially if you rely on stable Play Store updates for the app, which only delivers new features once in a blue moon. With the month coming to a close, we’ve summarized the most interesting WhatsApp features we followed in July 2024.
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Chats just keep getting better
Before the addition of supplementary services like voice and video calling, status updates, and Community features, WhatsApp was a rudimentary chat app, not unlike most modern SMS clients. Today, chats remain key to the app’s popularity, and WhatsApp acknowledges that with a smattering of new features.
Select favorite chats and calls
WhatsApp already allows pinning chats for quick access, but the convenience doesn’t extend to the Calls tab. This month, the glaring issue was fixed with a new Favorites filter. While your pinned chats stay visible in the default Chats tab view, you can use this new filter to see different (or even the same) chats with people you contact frequently.
These favorites are also pinned atop your call log in the Calls tab, with quick shortcuts for voice and video calling. This saves you a few taps by accessing the calling shortcuts underneath the expanded profile picture thumbnail.
You should see a new Add to Favorites option in the Calls tab, which speeds up initial setup with bulk selection, but otherwise, the option is also available in the Contact info/Group info page for individual and group chats.
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Animated emoji coming soon
In the beta version, emoji just got a lot more interesting because WhatsApp usually allows sending reactions to messages or individual emoji as stickers. This month, WABetaInfo spotted the app testing new animated stickers styled to resemble a handful of common emojis.
The implementation relies on the Lottie Library to ensure performance isn’t sacrificed for this visual attribute. Moreover, the app defaults to the static version if an animated version isn’t available, so it might be a while before we get to try it too.
WhatsApp isn’t a trendsetter in using Lottie for animated emoji stickers, and the feature has been available on rival platforms like Telegram. However, a delay is better than improper implementation.
Voice message transcription on Android
While chats and emoji work in conjunction to convey emotions convincingly, sometimes, saying things might just be better, like when you want to give someone an earful.
Voice messages are great in such cases and WhatsApp supports them, but you may not always be in a position to listen to them privately. iPhone users enjoy the convenience of voice message transcription, but Android had been left out until this month when WhatsApp finally started beta testing.
In the beta, WhatsApp supports transcription in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Hindi — locales where the app is tremendously popular. In due course, this could become a staple feature.
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In-app translation support
While we’re on the subject of transcripts, we can’t skip mentioning that a chat translations feature was spotted in the early stages of development in a recent beta version this month.
WhatsApp dissolves geographical boundaries by eliminating costs associated with international SMS, but you might still need a secondary service like Google Translate to circumvent the language barrier. It appears Meta recognizes this problem and is working on an in-app translator utility.
This feature will use Google Live Translate, and an option should appear in the three-dot overflow menu for every conversation. Moreover, the translation will be performed on-device via downloadable language packs, so the privacy of your conversations isn’t hamstrung by cloud processing. Once available, it could save the effort of switching back and forth between a translator app and conversations in a foreign language.
Updated status updates
Moving on from chats to the changes in the Status tab, WhatsApp has been testing several UI changes for status updates, such as those with larger previews and updated content previews replacing profile pictures, but we haven’t seen the devs settle on anything. This month entailed more testing.
Another status updates UI tweak
WhatsApp’s status updates are weird in that the overflow menu for updates still has most of the options you might find in the chat with that contact, such as options to call the contact, message them, etc. Now, WhatsApp is beta testing a new overflow menu with limited options, retaining only those pertinent to status updates, like Mute, View contact, and Report.
The move makes sense and was long overdue because users won’t use the overflow menu to message contacts or view their info — status updates already feature a Reply field and tapping the contact name pulls up their info immediately. This is a prime example of a fully developed app cleaning up redundant UI options to streamline the user experience, and the changes are welcome.
Share status updates soon
While the fundamental basis of social apps is sharing and communication, WhatsApp could head down the slippery Instagram-like slope, where it simply becomes another run-of-the-mill media app.
WABetaInfo spotted support for sharing status updates in a beta build this month, but it’s still in development. Quite like Instagram, where you can collaborate on posts or share stories you’re tagged in, WhatsApp may allow users to share status updates they see through their own updates.
With user tagging support also spotted in the works sporadically, this could become a reality, although timelines are still up in the air, as always.
New Meta-style blue verification badges
As a related aside, WhatsApp has retained a mostly green UI even with Dynamic theming guidelines on Android, but the impact of a decade under Meta ownership started showing in features like stories, Communities, and animated emoji.
Now, even verification badges for legitimate businesses and individuals are switching from green to blue in WhatsApp, much like Meta’s other services, Messenger and Facebook. This minor change is not even the first of its kind, as WhatsApp previously changed the read receipt checkmark color from green to blue. For what it’s worth, it will also help maintain parity with the likes of Twitter.
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AI developments weren’t forgotten
AI has been a buzzword for a while now, but WhatsApp’s reliance on Meta AI is a few steps behind the bleeding edge. As a result, several features are only starting to reach users now, well over a year after OpenAI’s ChatGPT popularized such chatbots.
Create AI imagery of yourself
While AI excels at image generation and dedicated services like DallE and ImaGen are the best solutions, Meta announced that several people in the US and a few other countries can now use Meta AI in WhatsApp to create AI images of themselves.
The initial setup entails sharing images of what you look like, but the company says you can then use the images to imagine yourself at a beach or imagine what you would look like with a neon wig, and the AI will comply with images to match.
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Create an AI version of yourself in a few steps
The AI can be prompted in individual chats with a message like “@MetaAI, imagine me as…” to save you the effort of using the dedicated chat with the bot and forwarding its creations to the pertinent chat. You can also demand edits of the AI creations if you’re dissatisfied with the results.
Implementing this feature at scale could unchain WhatsApp from the creative confines of other AI services, but Meta’s roadmap for expansion remains a mystery.
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Geographic availability is better too
And one final detail
Lastly, the sleuths at WABetaInfo spotted the early signs of a zoom feature for the WhatsApp camera utility. This is one such quality-of-life feature you don’t know how desperately you needed until it’s revoked, and that’s how using WhatsApp Camera felt for most users. Since this feature is now in development, changes could be afoot, and we cannot wait for all the other ones we saw in July to reach their final forms.
