WhatsApp is probably the most used app on your smartphone. With over 1.2 billion users the popularity of WhatsApp is not in question. But despite it being such a popular app, I’m pretty sure that many of you don’t know its true potential.
Allow me to enlighten you.
The readers who have been following us know that WhatsApp has stepped on the gas on app development. WhatsApp developers are continuously working on new features in the Google Play Beta release channel and iOS versions. WhatsApp is not the same app that it was 2 years ago which was updated once every few weeks just to maintain things.
The developers have been working on a lot of new features, most of which are usually hidden. Considering that we have decided to outline 12 features that WhatsApp is working on.
You might be aware of some of these features, but I’m certain that there are very few among you who are aware of all of them.
1. Video Calling: This one’s the most obvious. This highly requested feature was only introduced in October last year. We covered the video calling quality of the calls in detail in the past, and ever since its inception, the company has improved the reliability of video calls considerably.
2. Gifs and Gif Search: Gifs are something that was sorely missing in WhatsApp, and the eventual introduction of Gifs has made life much cooler and happy for people like me, who think that emojis and emoticons are insufficient for expression. The company has added GIF search inside the app so you can search the GIFs you need without leaving the app. You can also convert short videos that you share or record into Gifs
3. Send any file: WhatsApp has gradually been expanding the type of files that one can send after it introduced the ‘Documents’ section. More recently you could send PDF and Zip files. Developers have expanded the functionality to include any type of file, ranging from full resolution photos, programs, documents, zip files to other file formats.
4. Bulk sharing and Multicast: WhatsApp has raised the limit of sharing to 30 media files at one go. This is a much-needed improvement from the previous cap of 10 media files at a time. The company also revamped its forwarding interface to forward a message or media content to more than one contact at one go.
5. Group mention: WhatsApp has added the functionality to mention WhatsApp users in a group conversation. This is huge for people in groups with a lot of members, like family groups or college groups, as it allows others to mention them in important messages. One thing to note is that the people you are mentioning should be the part of that particular WhatsApp group.
6. Live location tracking: WhatsApp is testing a new feature where your location can be shared with the members of a particular WhatsApp group. This is especially important for instances where the people of the group want to meet at a new place and only a few of them know their way to the meeting point. Users can enable this feature to get help from other group members.
Image Credit for images on the right: WABetaInfo, Twitter
7. Reply, edit and revoke messages: The company introduced a new feature where you could reply to specific messages in a conversation. This is a great feature and helps cut down confusion considerably, especially when two people are talking about multiple topics at the same time. WhatsApp is also working on the ability to Edit sent messages in addition to the ability to revoke messages.
8. Font Formatting: You can change the format of the text that you are sending to the other end by making the text bold, italic or strikethrough. You can experiment with clever combinations of Bold and italic, strike-through or others. Sadly we are still waiting for the ability to change the font size during a conversation.
9. Offline Message Queue: This is a huge feature for iOS users because earlier you could not use WhatsApp if you were not connected to the internet. This is a welcome change as users can now use WhatsApp without the need to be online all the time, and then queue messages sent during that offline period.
Image Credit: WABetaInfo
10. Business Profiles: WhatsApp is also working on the ability to introduce WhatsApp for business. It is too early to comment if the company will make a separate app or stick with it, but recent leaks point at the company baking the Business profile feature into the normal app.
11. Two-Step Verification: WhatsApp has also introduced ‘Two-step verification‘ where users can lock down registration with a passcode. This will ensure that no other person can hijack the account if they get their hands on your SIM or mobile number.
12. Snapchat style stickers: In an attempt to replicate the success formula of Snapchat, the company has added additional features for chatting and sharing multimedia. You can click pictures and quickly share them with your contacts after adding Snapchat style stickers and doodles.
So… Did you learn something new? Let me know in the comments section below.
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