WhatsApp Messenger has introduced about a dozen new features for group chats, calls, and channels. One of the most notable innovations is the new “Online” indicator, which displays how many participants in a group chat have the app open at the moment.
Image source: WhatsApp
The “Online” status is one of several features that mirrors other messaging platforms — Discord, for example, displays the online status of server members. WhatsApp has not mentioned whether users will be able to change their status manually, such as setting their indicator to “offline.”
Managing notifications in group chats has become easier — you can choose what events the messenger will notify you about: these can be mentions of a user’s name using the “@” symbol or notifications about messages from individual chat participants. The mechanism for reacting to messages has been simplified — you can select one left by other users and quickly publish the same one; something similar already exists in Discord and Slack.
There are new event management tools: the “Maybe” option as a response to an invitation, you can add one more participant (“plus one”), add the date and end time of the event if it is long. In group chats, events can now be pinned for easy finding later; or created in personal correspondence.
IPhone owners, who previously had the ability to set WhatsApp as the default app for calls and messages, can now also use the messenger to work with documents: scan, crop and save them.
Channels now have voice message transcripts, the ability to create video notes up to 60 seconds long, and the ability to generate a QR code with the channel address to attract new subscribers. The quality of video calls has improved; users can be added to video calls directly in the chat; video chat image scaling has also become available – the latter is again only available for iPhone for now.