Key Takeaways
- Meta is updating WhatsApp with features like music support for Status Updates and personalized emojis.
- The messaging platform has been spotted working on an ‘Add Yours’ sticker, allowing users to create interactive challenges and prompts within Status Updates.
- A dedicated Status Update sticker for polls is also reportedly in development.
WhatsApp is a leading end-to-end encrypted messaging solution that is only getting better day-by-day with the arrival of new features. Following in the footsteps of its sister company Instagram, WhatsApp has been spotted working on features like music support for Status Updates and a personalized emoji list, while status likes and private mentions have already made their way to stable.
Elsewhere, the messaging platform will soon gain a ‘Search on web’ feature for images, essentially allowing you to run a Google Lens search directly from WhatsApp, alongside another media-focused feature that will add a new shortcut to the app that takes you straight to your device’s gallery app, simplifying the process of sending images or videos on the messaging platform.
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WhatsApp could make it easier to share media from your gallery
A new gallery shortcut has appeared
In addition to those solid in-development features, WABetaInfo has spotted WhatsApp building on the momentum — with new content stickers for Status Updates reportedly on the way. In an iOS beta back in September, the publication found WhatsApp working on a ‘poll’ sticker for Status Updates. The interactive sticker hasn’t rolled out yet on iOS (where it was spotted) or on Android.
As its name suggests, the sticker would essentially allow users to add a poll with multiple choices that status viewers can vote on. This will essentially function like regular in-chat polls, but instead, they’ll live inside Status Updates.
Add Yours and Polls for Status Updates might launch at the same time
Now, WhatsApp beta for Android version 2.24.23.21 offers hints at more Content Stickers, with an Instagram-borrowed ‘Add Yours‘ first in line. The photo-sharing platform first rolled out Add Yours back in 2021 to allow users to create a public thread in stories. Three years down the line, Meta is seemingly ready to port it over to WhatsApp.
The messaging platform’s version of the feature will, however, have a major distinction. Considering its focus on privacy, interactions via Add Yours will remain confidential and end-to-end-encrypted, which essentially means that if you respond to someone’s Add Yours Status Update, only the people you’ve chosen to share your status update with (all contacts or specific individuals) can see your response. On Instagram, however, users can easily follow trails and see what other users who interacted with the status before them had posted/shared.
Source: WABetaInfo
Both polls and Add Your stickers are currently under development. It is unclear when they might land on stable WhatsApp.
