Beyond your facial and fingerprint identification to unlock your phones, WhatsApp is working on fingerprint authentication to open the app on your Android device. This is one of new elements being included in the next version of WhatsApp - Android 2.19.3. According to a report by Wabetainfo, the version is currently in the testing beta mode and once the testing is complete, all WhatsApp users on Android will get the updates.
WhatsApp has finished developing the adoption of Facial ID and Touch ID for the iOS devices and that will also be made available soon to all users. In the Privacy section within the WhatsApp app, there will be a new entry, Authentication and below it the entry Fingerprint will appear with a box against it. You have to tick the box to enable this feature on your device.
And the way it will work on the device is whether you open the app from the app drawer or tap on a message notification, a dialogue box will first popup with the fingerprint icon. You place your fingerprint there and it will match with the registered fingerprint and take you to the app or the message, whichever. Now, there is a choice there which says “Use Device Credentials”. This means, if you have enabled the fingerprint sensor in your device and use it to unlock the device, the same can be used here as well.
It is indicated that only Android Marshmallow (version 6) and later can deploy this feature in the WhatsApp. And the phone must have a fingerprint sensor included in the features.
One more feature under development, as reported, relates to the selection, playing and sending of audio files. You can play the audio before forwarding in the message form and right now 30 audios are being permitted at one time. This may stand increased. Details are still awaited. There could be one or two more improvements as well in this new version of WhatsApp for Android.