A lot has happened with the WhatsApp status function. The messages should not only be safer, but also more personal and practical.
Status updates on WhatsApp are a popular way to share photos, videos, GIFs, or plain text with other users for 24 hours. However, compared to the equivalent stories on other services, statuses are a bit more limited. That is about to change: WhatsApp has announced a number of new features for the function on its company blog.
New privacy settings
WhatsApp users will soon be able to select the target audience for their status. If you want to share news or photos using this function, you can specify which contacts can see the status and which cannot. The app adopts the last selection made as the default for the next status update.
language status
Until now, status messages could consist of text, photos, videos or GIFs. But WhatsApp has also planned changes here. Voice messages – or voice statuses – of up to 30 seconds will soon be possible. More information about the new feature can be found here: WhatsApp brings voice function for the status.
link preview
In WhatsApp chats it is already the case that a small preview of the website content appears when links are sent. The company is now enabling the link preview for the status as well. This should help make the links more interesting and give contacts a better idea of what to expect when they click them.
New status profile ring
Some of you may have noticed that sometimes a circle appears around a contact’s profile picture. WhatsApp tested the profile ring a long time ago. This now appears when a contact shares a status update. The green ring should be found in the chat list, the group participant list and in the contact info.
Update brings reactions for status updates
Another feature that WhatsApp has been testing for some time is reactions to status updates. The company only introduced reactions to messages last year. The logical continuation is now the expansion of reactions to status updates. To do this, you have to swipe your finger up over the status and select one of eight emojis for the time being.
WhatsApp plans to make the new status features available for iOS and Android in the coming weeks. According to “WhatsAppBetaInfo”, the desktop version should also come with the update be compatible. Since the update is distributed to compatible devices in stages, it can take different amounts of time before all users actually get it.
source
WhatsApp blog: “New Ways to Enjoy WhatsApp Status’ (accessed February 13, 2023)
With material from dpa