Change is coming!
Our beloved instant messaging platform, the one that completely took over standard SMSing in South Africa, is changing! But only for the better… This Meta-owned social media platform has introduced several new updates trialling privacy settings and innovative features they hope to make a standard.
What has been rolled out?
Dramatic exits
Leaving a WhatsApp group unannounced with a ‘John left’ notification can draw unpleasant reactions, depending on what the group was for. Luckily, a newly rolled-out feature allows group members to leave discreetly. Now, only group admins are informed of member exits.
Extended deleting
By now, ‘This message was deleted’ is familiar to most of us. This feature was first introduced in 2017 and slowly rolled out to WhatsApp users across the globe. While it initially gave senders a gap of 7 minutes to remove their messages, the platform has recently updated to allow users up to 60 hours to remove a message for everyone in the chat.
Reactions
The most fun and arguably most popular feature WhatsApp has recently introduced is their reactions! What started with a few standard emojis has now broadened to allow users to react to messages with any emoji on the platform – making for some exciting chat interactions.
What is still to come?
Online activity
The feature that allows users to hide their last seen online status from contacts was incredibly popular when first introduced. Now, it’s a standard setting for most as it allows users improved privacy with their contacts, should they wish to enter the application without responding before they are ready to do so (and limit offending someone in the process).
To further the ability of this feature, WhatsApp has announced its intention to roll out an update that will allow users to hide their online activity status completely. Before, despite a hidden last seen, contacts could still see when someone else was online. With this update, users can completely hide whether they are online to specific contacts (or all of them).
Securing disappearing content
Taking inspiration from Snap Chat, WhatsApp introduced the ability to send disappearing visual content with a ‘view once’ ability. Unfortunately, the privacy of this is still in the works as users on the receiving end are still able to screenshot the content without the senders’ knowledge.
The upcoming feature will eliminate this problem with a feature similar to Snap Chat and Instagram, which will give the sender a notification when their message has been screenshotted.
New status
If you are an avid WhatsApp status user, you will be glad to hear that their developers are working hard to add a new and exciting addition to this feature. Users will soon be able to add voice notes as their status updates, which is exciting compared to the standard of text or visual based content. Once enabled, users will see a voice recording button alongside their current sharing options to easily record and share to their contacts.
All about the innovation
The saying ‘change is as good as a holiday’ rings true for just about everything, even our favourite social media platforms! As industry-leading digital marketers, we like to keep ourselves and our clients in the loop with the latest happenings.
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