Features distinguish instant messaging apps, and WhatsApp understands this all too well because we continuously report on the testing and development of new features that will benefit users. Every month, Meta’s developers give us beta testers a few features to play with, even if some of them may never be released. The month of May was no exception, with a few stable channel upgrades and an abundance of beta feature sightings and tests to keep us interested.
While the great majority of the features we see are in various phases of development or beta testing, those using the consumer-facing version from the Play Store can look forward to a few new features this month. First and foremost, WhatsApp’s user interface is changing from dark green to a lighter colour palette. We first saw this testing last month, but the new UI design, which includes a prominent search bar, squarish floating action button, and bottom nav bar with four equal-width tabs, is now live.
This design includes a lighter color scheme paired with new shapes in the default chat background called doodle. While there are smaller changes too, they all share a common theme — modernizing the app interface without compromising its simplicity.
In addition, the Play Store upgrades quadrupled the duration limit for voice notes and voice messages transmitted as status updates. As a result, users can now reach a larger audience with fewer consecutive messages. Speaking of restrictions, users of the Play Store-delivered stable version will notice that they can now pin up to three messages per chat, up from the previous maximum of one message per chat.
However, it’s worth noting that messages can only be pinned temporarily, and you should star-mark messages if you plan to revisit them after a long time, or after you clear the chat. WhatsApp doesn’t even limit the number of starred messages per chat.
While pinned texts show up at the top of the conversation window with an excerpt from the beginning of the message visible, pinned media in the chat simply said “Image” or “Video.” If you often deal with images and videos, it’s immediately apparent why and how this can be infuriating. A beta this month fixed this behavior with the addition of a thumbnail preview for the media to show up beside the Image or Video label.
