WhatsApp is reportedly launching a series of new features on its instant messaging app and many of these are already under testing on the Beta version. Once launched on the regular app, these functions and features will be available across Android, iOS and for web users. There are also suggestions that WhatsApp may launch an exclusive app meant for business users to help them communicate with their stakeholders forming groups.
The changes being brought about include Tap to Unblock, Shake to Report, Private Replies in groups and Picture-in-Picture. These reports also suggest that some of these new features have already been made available on WhatsApp for web version 2.7315. These are Picture-in-picture and Private Replies. Besides, on the app versions, 2.17.424, 2.17.436 and 2.17.437, Tap to unblock a user, New invite via a link and Shake to report upgrades would have already been received and possibly installed.
Observers believe it won’t be long before all these updated features will be seen on the stable version of the app that smartphone users access worldwide. This is being conveyed because Facebook or WhatsApp has not made any official announcement about the changes being brought about. Once it is there on the Beta version, it will automatically extend to the regular version in due course. The precise timing, however, is still unclear.
Speaking about details of each of these improvements, the ‘Private Replies’ feature lets the user frame and send a reply to any group message to individuals within the group without getting out of the group. There will be a dedicated option that lets you do this. Similarly, with the ‘Picture-in-Picture’ feature, you can carry on with a video chat with one contact while responding to another simultaneously.
With the new changes, WhatsApp will permit you to decrease the size of the video chat window for this. The ‘Tap to Unblock’, as the name suggests, is the easier and simpler option to unblock a contact you have blocked earlier. Instead of having to go to the settings and choosing the option, you could just tap on the contact to unblock him or her. The ‘invite-via-a-link’ feature is already available to the iOS users and will now be made available to the Android and WhatsApp web users also.
The last one, ‘Shake to Report’ is definitely new. With this, if you are facing any issue with the app, you need to just shake your phone and the contact section within the app opens up and you can file your complaint directly.