Facebook owned instant messaging giant WhatsApp is likely to roll out many much-awaited and much-demanded features in its next update. These features are under beat-testing and at various stages of implementation.
Some of the features such as disappearing message, dark mode and splash screen have been caught testing a number of times by several groups that keep a tab on WhatsApp beta testing programs. Here are all the features you can expect in the next update of the popular app.
Disappearing messages: It allows users to send and receive messages that will disappear after a certain timeframe. These messages are especially useful when users want to share some information over the social messaging platform but don’t want it to keep it on record forever. These messages will leave no trace of deleted messages in the chat such as the ‘delete for everyone’ option, which currently shows that the message has been deleted. Instead, it will be like the chat never existed. GMail and Telegram already offer similar features.
Hide muted status: WhatsApp is expected to roll out hide mute status feature that will enable users to mute status updates. A beta version on Android is already under testing and it could soon be seen testing on iOS as well. This feature will allow users to hide the status updates from those whose numbers are kept on the mute mode in the contact list. To access the feature the user will need to click on a new button ‘hide’ that will be visible on top of the muted status updates section. If the user changes his mind and decides to restore the visibility of hidden muted status updates, he can do that by clicking on ‘show’.
New Group Privacy: Back in April this year, WhatsApp had launched a feature called ‘Group Privacy Settings’. With this feature, a user can stay away from getting added to WhatsApp groups. Now, reports suggest that the update ‘New group privacy’, will be replaced with ‘Nobody’ with ‘My contacts except’. With this, a user will be able to block a set of contacts, that won’t be able to add the user to unwanted groups.
Splash Screen: The new feature will pop up the logo of WhatsApp whenever users open the messaging service platform. This feature is under beta testing in both Android and iOS platforms.
Dark Mode: This energy-friendly version of the app is in planning stage, if reports are to be believed. The company, however, hasn’t announced any details pertaining to it release.