Tag: WhatsApp

WhatsApp is introducing a new disappearing messages option this month. The feature will allow WhatsApp users to enable disappearing messages on chat conversations between friends, to automatically delete messages after seven days. Anyone can enable the option in individual chats, and group admins will be able to enable disappearing messages in group chats.

“We’re starting with 7 days because we think it offers peace of mind that conversations aren’t permanent, while remaining practical so you don’t forget what you were chatting about,” says a WhatsApp spokesperson. “The shopping list or store address you received a few days ago will be there while you need it, and then disappear after you don’t.”

Disappearing messages will also wipe out photos and videos after seven days, and while messages will disappear for both parties it’s still possible to take screenshots or just simply copy messages before they’re automatically deleted.

You’ll need to enable disappearing messages on a per group or contact basis. Once the feature has rolled out fully, it will be available as a new option in the contact section of each friend in WhatsApp. The setting won’t wipe out older messages, and only affects new messages once it’s enabled by either party. WhatsApp says it will start rolling out disappearing messages to all users this month.

The popular messaging app WhatsApp looks set to introduce four new features in 2020. Here’s everything we know is coming down the pipeline.

The Facebook-owned chat app, which is used by 1.5 billion users every month, has introduced a number of new features over the last twelve months, including the ability to choose who can add you to a group chat, respond privately to a message sent inside a group chat, and protect your chats with a fingerprint on Android smartphones.

With the app constantly updating its software to include a slew of new features to provide smooth messaging and call experience to its users, here’s a breakdown of the new features that look set to arrive over the next 12 months.

Dark Mode

WhatsApp’s elusive Dark Mode has been rumoured for 18-months now and looks set to finally arrive in 2020. WABetaInfo – a popular Twitter account that deep-dives through the latest beta releases of the app to uncover clues about forthcoming features – discovered the first hints at the gloomier appearance in summer 2018.

Since then, we’ve seen an increasing amount of evidence about the feature, including the fact that WhatsApp is purportedly looking to create two new potential looks – one in greyscale, and another in pitch-blacks. Twitter uses a similar approach. While the pitch-black tones will be the only ones that act as a battery-saver for those with smartphones touting OLED touchscreens, the greyscale should still help people who are only looking to ease their eyes when using their smartphones late at night.

Interestingly, every other Facebook-owned platform which has introduced a Dark Mode has opted for the jet-black variant, including Instagram and Facebook Messenger. Both of these were also much, much quicker at getting the feature out the door – so it really seems like WhatsApp is doing its own thing here.

For those who don’t know, Dark Modes switch the portions of the user interface that would typically be white with greys or blacks. This is designed to make your smartphone screen less glaring when using it at night or other low-light conditions and eking out a few more hours battery life when used on a smartphone with an OLED panel.

Although WhatsApp’s Dark Mode is still in the works (with no confirmed release date as yet) WABetaInfo has reported that the dark theme update is ready for the android version of WhatsApp.

Self-Destructing Messages

Discovered by @WABetaInfo once again, WhatsApp appears to be working on a SnapChat-inspired new feature that will let you set a timer on your texts. The new feature means users can send messages that will self-destruct after a certain time has passed.

The Facebook-owned team looked set to brand the feature “Disappearing Messages,” which wasn’t the most thrilling name. Something that WhatsApp appeared to think too because it changed the name to “Delete Messages” as of the 2.19.348 update.

Group chats will be able to set a blanket rule about Delete Messages – so that every text message, photo, video vanishes after either one hour, one day, one week, one month or one year. It’s a fun way to make sure that you’re not constantly haunted by the texts, videos or photos that you’re sending to an individual or group.

SnapChat gained huge traction for its ephemeral messaging system, which removes every photo, video, text message after a recipient has read it. To prevent people from being able to screenshot anything the sender might’ve wanted to keep as a limited time only offer, the messaging app included a warning when the other person in your chat screenshots the messages. It’s unclear whether WhatsApp is working on a similar warning.

Clearly, WhatsApp is still working hard on the feature. It has not announced plans to offer Disappearing Messages, so it might be a while before we see the finalised feature roll-out.

Adverts Are on the Way

Yes, we’re afraid it’s not all good news about the updates planned for 2020. While the Facebook-owned app looks set to introduce a slew of new features and capabilities, there will also be some adverts in the app for the first time. Rumblings about advertisements coming to WhatsApp have been around for some time (and are believed to be one of the reasons that WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum left the company after its acquisition by Facebook).

Luckily, the adverts won’t be coming to the chat windows themselves – so you don’t have to worry about ducking around adverts for discounted holidays while you’re texting your mum. Instead, the adverts will be played in-between slides on WhatsApp Statuses – just like they are on other Facebook platforms, including Instagram.

Shopping Brochures For Your Chat App

WhatsApp is bringing shopping catalogues to its WhatsApp Business app. The software, which is an off-shoot of the original chat app designed to help customers communicate with businesses or customer service representatives using the same tools as the normal chat app, is available worldwide.

Dubbed Catalogs (yes, they’re using the American spelling), merchants on WhatsApp Business can now share a complete breakdown of their inventory that you can peruse within the same chat app window you’d usually use to speak with business owners. Weirdly, you’re not able to buy anything from the catalogue just yet.

However, given the announcement that Facebook is launching its own payment service (inventively named Facebook Pay) and that it will be coming to WhatsApp in the future, it seems more than likely that chat app users will eventually be able to buy an item from the catalogue without ever leaving WhatsApp.

But for now, WhatsApp claims the new feature is designed to help small businesses appear more professional on the app. If a merchant isn’t able to offer a slick online catalogue of all of their items, WhatsApp’s new tool should let them present their customers with a beautifully-designed catalogue of everything in-store without much effort – or programming – on their part.

Shopping catalogues on WhatsApp Business have started to crop-up in the UK, United States, Brazil, Germany, India, Indonesia, and Mexico. But for everyone else in the world, this is a 2020 feature – so keep an eye out for the update coming to your app soon.

Of course, Express.co.uk will cover all of these announcements as soon as they happen. So stay tuned for all the latest announcements from WhatsApp.

WhatsApp is currently working on a feature that will allow group messages to automatically delete after a set time. This way, it can seamlessly decongest the messages in groups. However, this is not a function for individual 1-to-1 chats. Presently, WhatsApp has a similar feature. As of now, you can’t go a few months back on a WhatsApp group without finding that some messages are missing. However, this upcoming feature will make the delete pattern more definite. 

WHATSAPP WILL SOON LET US AUTOMATICALLY CLEAN GROUP MESSAGES

The emphasis for this feature is “groups”. Therefore, we can assume that this feature should be seen as a cleaning tool for groups. This means that groups will no longer have to keep hundreds or thousands of messages within a few days. Sometimes, it’s scary to see over 500 messages waiting for you on a group because you’ve been out for a few days. This feature also ensure that the number of messages you see is the most recent. 

The selectable options include.

Out

1 hour

1 day

1 week

1 month

1 year

In addition, only administrators of groups can make these settings. As of now, it is not clear when the innovation will be available for WhatsApp users. WhatsApp is currently working on this in the background. There has been no official announcement yet.

WhatsApp users’ lives are about to get better thanks to a new update that includes three brilliant new features.

The features include the ability to set reminders. In addition, users can now be notified if someone is trying to call them while they are on the phone to someone else, and choose who can invite them to unwanted group chats.

The app, used by more than 1.5 billion people every month, announced the changes in the past few weeks.

WhatsApp reminders

Users wanting to set up reminders will need to download a separate app called Any.do after WhatsApp announced a partnership with them.

Once the two apps are linked, users can create and receive reminders within the messaging platform.

Sending texts like “remind me to pick up food on my way home” will prompt a response confirming the reminder.

Once the time comes, Any.do will send the user a Whatsapp message to remind them.

Any.do said: “Introducing Any.do’s WhatsApp Reminders integration. A fast and easy way to create tasks & reminders straight from your ongoing conversations!

“Easily create tasks and get reminders in WhatsApp on any supported device. Create a task by sending a direct message to Any.do or forward a message to Any.do from any of your contacts.

“Be reminded as soon as tasks are due, straight through WhatsApp. It’s easy, simple and effective!”

To access the feature, users must download a premium account costing about £5 a month.

WhatsApp call waiting

If you use WhatsApp to make a ton of phone calls, you’ve probably been in the situation where you’re on the phone with someone and another contact tries to call you.

Previously, WhatsApp wouldn’t alert you if someone else was trying to reach you at the same time – instead, you’d have to wait until you got off the phone to see you’d missed a call.

That’s all changed. In a recent WhatsApp update for iPhone and Android call waiting has been added. That means if you’re on the phone with a contact and someone else tries to call you a notification will appear at the top of your device.

This will allow you to decline the second caller or end your current call and accept the newest one.

WhatsApp group chat invites

Thirdly, users will be able to decide who adds the to WhatsApp groups. The new update will give them the options of “everyone”, “my contacts” or “my contacts except” where they can choose individual contacts to block group chat invites from.

As the naming conventions suggest, choosing the “my contacts” option will prevent anyone immediately flinging you into a group chat and the “my contacts except…” toggle will let you choose individual contacts you don’t want having such power.

Anyone that’s not able to immediately add you to a group chat can send you an invite to a group chat. This can be accepted or denied free of any awkwardness.

Activating the new feature is simple. Head to WhatsApp’s settings menu then press Account > Privacy > Groups.

The feature can be turned on in WhatsApp’s settings.

WhatsApp is expanding the capabilities of its dedicated app for business owners who want to reach their customers on smartphones. The Facebook-owned company is today introducing to the WhatsApp Business app a new “catalogs” feature that will allow the businesses to showcase and share their products and services to potential customers, who can browse photos, view prices and read product descriptions to help inform their purchase decisions.

These catalogs effectively serve as a mobile storefront on WhatsApp — and one that can be operated without the need for a web page at all. Instead, the business owner simply visits the new Catalog option in their app’s settings and uploads photos of whatever it is they’re selling and fill out the details, which can optionally include a product or service code (e.g. a SKU), if need be.

These catalog items can then be sent to customers in a WhatsApp chat message. For example, if a customer asks about a particular item or for a recommendation, the business owner can tap to send a particular item from their catalog that includes all the information the customer wants to know.

The catalogs are particularly appealing to WhatsApp’s customer based in emerging markets, where much of users’ online activity is taking place inside apps instead of on the wider web. As new users come online in these regions, they’re often skipping the PC revolution entirely and going straight to smartphones instead.

Already, the WhatsApp Business app is claiming a portion of that market. Earlier this year, the company said the app had reached some 5 million business customers.

The catalogs feature today joins several others designed with the needs of businesses in mind, including business profiles, quick replies for messages, chat labels and automated messages.

WhatsApp says the new feature is available to businesses using the WhatsApp Business app on both Android and iPhone in Brazil, Germany, India, Indonesia, Mexico, the U.K. and the U.S., for the time being. It will roll out to other worldwide markets “soon,” but WhatsApp didn’t offer a more exact launch time frame.

WhatsApp is giving you more ways to block people from adding you to group chats. Its updated privacy settings replace the original “nobody” option with a “my contacts except” choice that lets you prevent certain people (or all of them, if you prefer) from dragging you into a group. Your close friends and family can add you to a chat, for example, but a co-worker can’t rope you into a sports discussion without your permission.

Like earlier, a chat administrator who doesn’t have permission can still send a private invitation through an individual chat. The request will disappear after three days, so you can ignore it if you’d rather not respond.

The feature should be active now on Android and iOS. This is an acknowledgment that unwanted group invitations are still an issue, of course, but it’s also part of an ongoing effort to fight fake news. There should be fewer opportunities for people to spread misinformation, at least to people who weren’t already receptive to it.

WhatsApp is easily one of the most popular messaging apps out there, and Facebook’s only chat app that supports end-to-end encryption, just like iMessage on the iPhone. The advantage of WhatsApp is that you can use it across devices to stay in touch with your contacts regardless of their mobile operating system.

However, WhatsApp isn’t perfect, and some users have been waiting for years for Facebook to roll out a few features that could turn it into an even more powerful iMessage alternative. Some of those features include support for multiple devices, as well as a custom version of the app for tablets — or at least for the iPad.

Facebook has been working on an iPad version of WhatsApp for months now, as we saw the first leaks detailing the app’s UI changes for tablets back in April. But the feature has yet to roll out.

Customizing the app to take advantage of the iPad’s bigger screen can’t be that complicated, but there is a more complex feature required to make it all work. Facebook has been looking at letting users access the same WhatsApp account from multiple devices at the same time, including multiple phones.

WhatsApp accounts are created with the help of phone numbers, which means you can’t use the same account on two phones right now. It’s a security feature, and one that prevents the rollout of the iPad version of the app, according to prominent WhatsApp leaker @WABetaInfo on Twitter:

A desktop version of WhatsApp does exist, but that only works in tandem with the main phone where the account was activated. Using WhatsApp on multiple devices simultaneously also needs to have the same end-to-end encryption support, and Facebook is developing support for that, according to the same leaker:

Once that happens, people who use more than one smartphone, or a combination of smartphones and tablets, will be able to set up the same WhatsApp account across all of them:

It’s unclear when the feature will roll out, but the leaker suggested that screenshots of the new multi-device WhatsApp experiences might arrive soon. Comparatively, iMessage works simultaneously on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, as long as you sign in with the same Apple ID.