Siri can now read out your WhatsApp messages; along with other minor updates

Image: AFP

WhatsApp is not taking it slow with the pace of updates for its Android and iOS apps. The company is working on a number of small tweaks along with new feature additions for both the platforms. The Siri update being a major one, which gives Siri the ability to read out your messages.

The small tweaks are limited to user interface optimisation where the company can streamline and improve the existing interface. These features were uncovered by WABetaInfo, a pretty reliable source for all the new WhatsApp features

We have compiled a list of small changes that the company is working on and categorised them according to the operating system so that it is easier for you check that features that you can expect on your smartphone.

iOS

WhatsApp developers have added support for SiriKit which allows Siri to read and reply to your WhatsApp message on your behalf. Now you can ask Siri for any new messages on WhatsApp and Apple’s digital assistant will read them for you. The developers are working rigorously on revamping parts of the app in terms of UI design to be consistent with the system level apps. The developers have revamped the Contact details screen on WhatsApp to appear consistent with the logos corresponding to the test label of the setting. They have added a new ‘Chat History’ button in the contact details along with ‘Groups in common’ option.

Image Credit: WABeta Info

The developers have also added the ability for users to view and edit the contact information. This section has also gained shortcuts to quickly send a message, make a video and an audio call from the screen. The Calls section on the app now shows WhatsApp profile pictures along with, call type and a ‘+’ icon on the top right corner that can be used to make audio and video calls. Developers have also added shortcuts to quickly make video and audio calls. The next change allows users to select multiple statuses and forward them or delete them.

Image Credit: WABeta Info

WhatsApp is also testing a ‘Contact Cards’ section for the users who are not in your contact list. You can check all the contact cards sent in from others in this section. The company has also improved the app’s ability to download media directly from URLs without leaving the app. Most of these features are available in the iOS beta update and will roll out for everyone in the coming updates to the stable version of WhatsApp on the AppStore.

Android

WhatsApp developers have been working on the ‘Live Location sharing’ feature that was reported previously. The company has updated the feature for the location thumbnail to continuously update your location without the need to tap on the message and open the maps interface. The developers also tweaked the previously reported chats ‘Pin’ feature.

Image Credit: WABeta Info

The app no longer highlights the pinned Chats or Groups. They have improved another feature where if you exit a group that you have pinned on the top, the app will prompt you to unpin the group as you confirm the exit from the group. The interesting thing to note here is that both the features are hidden by default for the Beta users on Android.

Image Credit: WABeta Info

WhatsApp usually hides some features from the beta users so that the internal group can use the features and verify that the new features do not interfere existing functionalities in the app. The beta app gained a new UI for editing videos before you send the video.

Publish date: April 25, 2017 10:07 am| Modified date: April 25, 2017 10:32 am

WhatsApp is working on a lot of minor changes for its Android and iOS apps

Image: AFP

WhatsApp is not taking it slow with the pace of updates for its Android and iOS apps. The company is working on a number of small tweaks along with new feature additions for both the platforms. The small tweaks are limited to user interface optimisation where the company can streamline and improve the existing interface. These features were uncovered by WABetaInfo, a pretty reliable source for all the new WhatsApp features

We have compiled a list of small changes that the company is working on and categorised them according to the operating system so that it is easier for you check that features that you can expect on your smartphone.

Android

WhatsApp developers have been working on the ‘Live Location sharing’ feature that was reported previously. The company has updated the feature for the location thumbnail to continuously update your location without the need to tap on the message and open the maps interface. The developers also tweaked the previously reported chats ‘Pin’ feature.

Image Credit: WABeta Info

The app no longer highlights the pinned Chats or Groups. They have improved another feature where if you exit a group that you have pinned on the top, the app will prompt you to unpin the group as you confirm the exit from the group. The interesting thing to note here is that both the features are hidden by default for the Beta users on Android.

Image Credit: WABeta Info

WhatsApp usually hides some features from the beta users so that the internal group can use the features and verify that the new features do not interfere existing functionalities in the app. The beta app gained a new UI for editing videos before you send the video.

iOS

The developers are working rigorously on revamping parts of the app in terms of UI design to be consistent with the system level apps. The developers have revamped the Contact details screen on WhatsApp to appear consistent with the logos corresponding to the test label of the setting. They have added a new ‘Chat History’ button in the contact details along with ‘Groups in common’ option.

Image Credit: WABeta Info

The developers have also added the ability for users to view and edit the contact information. This section has also gained shortcuts to quickly send a message, make a video and an audio call from the screen. The Calls section on the app now shows WhatsApp profile pictures along with, call type and a ‘+’ icon on the top right corner that can be used to make audio and video calls. Developers have also added shortcuts to quickly make video and audio calls. The next change allows users to select multiple statuses and forward them or delete them.

Image Credit: WABeta Info

WhatsApp is also testing a ‘Contact Cards’ section for the users who are not in your contact list. You can check all the contact cards sent in from others in this section. The company has also improved the app’s ability to download media directly from URLs without leaving the app.

Last but not the least, the company has also added new functionality to Siri which allows it to read and reply to your WhatsApp message on your behalf.

Publish date: April 21, 2017 12:44 pm| Modified date: April 21, 2017 12:44 pm

WhatsApp beta brings ability to revoke messages 5 minutes later; adds new formatting options

A WhatsApp beta update now allows messages to be revoked a whole 5 minutes after it has been sent. The update arrives for the for WhatsApp Web 0.2.4077 that basically works on improvements to do with the revoke feature. The feature however is turned off by default in Settings, so users will have to enable it to take advantage of the same.

Another new feature has showed up for the Android version of WhatsApp beta tagged as v2.17.148. The update thanks to @WABetaInfo is a new pop up menu that appears while editing or formatting text in the text field.

Upon selecting text, beta users are now seeing new formatting shortcuts including Bold, Italic, Monospace, and Strikethrough. Users on Android 7+ will already be able to see Translate, provided they have Google Translate installed.

Indeed these are updates that showed up on beta version of WhatsApp, so there’s no telling if or when they would be out.

The last update we saw from the beta community was for iOS. The iOS app saw a new Group Info page with a revamped design, new icons that got rid of the older or current spartan interface. For now it has not shown up on the public version of WhatsApp for iOS, so the above updates could indeed be a long way off.

Publish date: April 13, 2017 3:55 pm| Modified date: April 13, 2017 3:55 pm

WhatsApp now allows you to pick and send multiple contacts in one go

Image: AFP

WhatsApp has introduced the ability to pick and attach multiple contacts in one go without having to send the contacts one at a time. This feature is currently available in the beta version of the app, but it will roll out to other users soon.

Earlier, the app would force you to share only one contact at a time, making the process of sharing a large number of contacts very tedious.

This brings the attach contact section at par with other options like the Document and Gallery options, where you could select multiple documents, pictures, GIFs or videos to send them in a group or a conversation. I certainly wish that the company could do the same while sharing ‘Audio’ files or even ‘Location’. The company is working on introducing ‘Pinned Chats‘, an ‘Internal video player’, ‘Unsend‘, ‘Live locations‘, business tools and other features like ‘vCards indexing’ in future versions.

This update comes right after a report detailed that WhatsApp may be working on integrating UPI payments in the app to send money to friends and family without leaving the app. The last major update that WhatsApp introduced to its users was the ‘WhatsApp Status‘ which was panned by its users. The company had to bring back the ‘Text’ only Status in the form of ‘About’.

Publish date: April 4, 2017 1:40 pm| Modified date: April 4, 2017 1:40 pm

WhatsApp announced staged rollout of Video Calling feature for everyone in coming weeks

By tech2 News Staff /  15 Nov 2016 , 13:38

WhatsApp will start the roll-out of ‘Video Calling’ in coming weeks in stages. The company was working on the video calling featured behind in closed beta test since last 4-5 months. It launched the features as a hidden feature for Android Beta users last month and we tried the quality and reliability of the feature as soon as it was rolled out. This rollout will be for everyone across Android, iPhone and Windows Phone devices.

WhatsApp video calling

The company detailed that the feature has been frequently requested by users all across the world. This comes as a natural step in the feature evolution for WhatsApp after the introduction to Group Chats, Voice calling and most recently the launch of web and Windows client for users. WhatsApp users can converse with each other using the feature without having to go to any other VoIP platform like Skype or Viber.

Mr. Neeraj Arora, Head of Business, WhatsApp and Mr. Manpreet Singh
Image Credit: WhatsApp

“Video calling is one of the most requested features from people in India. We’re proud to have the opportunity to launch this feature in India, where we now have 160 million users, and we look forward to seeing people use WhatsApp to talk to their friends and loved ones face to face,” added Jan Koum, CEO and Co-Founder for WhatsApp. The company is working on additional features like ‘Two-Step Verification‘, GIF search inside the app and a new Snapchat ‘Snaps’ like ‘Status’ feature that will allow users to share distructable images or videos to the contact list or individual WhatsApp contacts.