Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

WhatsApp's new features organize your pics and make responding to messages easier

By

australian governent encryption backdoor whatsapp video call
Image used with permission by copyright holder
WhatsApp, one of the world’s most popular messaging apps, is making it easier to reply to messages and keep track of photos and videos.

Starting Tuesday on iOS, WhatsApp will automatically group collections of four or more photos or videos together as an album and create a tile display within the messaging window. Tapping on the album brings up a scrollable, full-screen view.

Recommended Videos

A new reply shortcut and camera filters dovetail with the albums feature. With a simple swipe in the new WhatsApp, you can apply one of five filters — pop, black and white, cool, chrome, and film — to your photos, videos, and GIFs within the app’s camera. And you can quickly respond to messages by swiping right on them from within your WhatsApp inbox.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The update is available now from the iTunes App Store.

Albums and quick replies build on WhatsApp’s other improvements. In January, the messaging service beta-tested a queue that lets users send replies in the absence of an internet connection, and it recently rolled out a feature that allows companies to relay updates, offers, and information to users. In February, WhatsApp marked its eight-year anniversary with the launch of Status, a tab within the app for sharing status updates in the form of ephemeral photos, videos, and GIFs that expire after 24 hours.

It also doubled down on encryption. In April 2016, it switched on end-to-end encryption for all users, and in May added encryption to iCloud backups.

That landed the service in hot water with law enforcement. Last year, judges in Brazil ordered the nationwide shutdown of WhatsApp’s messaging services in response to the company’s refusal to fork over data “relevant to [an] ongoing investigation,” and subsequently froze $11.7 million in Facebook funds when WhatsApp refused to cooperate.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

But it is part of a continued effort to build goodwill — and leverage the app’s audience. Since being acquired by Facebook in 2014, WhatsApp attracted more than 1 billion users who send 50 billion messages every day, including 3.3 billion photos, 760 million videos, and 80 million GIFs. But it failed to capitalize after eliminating its $1 subscription fee.

Messenger, Facebook’s other messaging platform, might provide a blueprint for WhatsApp’s monetization. Facebook has promoted the platform as a way to connect businesses with people for purposes beyond advertising, citing customer service as a primary feature. Retailers use the app to relay shipment tracking updates, for example, and banks use it to notify customers of fraudulent charges.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Kyle Wiggers
Kyle Wiggers
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kyle Wiggers is a writer, Web designer, and podcaster with an acute interest in all things tech. When not reviewing gadgets…
You can finally move your WhatsApp chats from Android to iOS
WhatsApp and Telegram app icons.

Moving WhatsApp chats from Android to iOS has been a painful task for years. But not anymore, as Apple and WhatsApp have made the process a whole lot easier. Starting today, Apple is adding a feature that allows you to move chats between the two platforms. The feature is a part of Apple’s existing “Move to iOS” Android application. It’s worth noting that the feature is currently available for beta users only, so non-beta users might have to wait for a week or two as it's rolled out in phases.

This is a big move since 2 million people use WhatsApp and, until now, there wasn’t an official method to move conversations between Android and iOS. There have been third-party solutions here and there, but nothing officially backed by Apple or WhatsApp. With the feature becoming available, users will be able to move their chats swiftly from Android to iOS.

Read more
WhatsApp Communities want to be your private social media
Whatsapp Communities on Samsung smart phones.

WhatsApp is adding a Communities feature to the eponymous instant messaging platform, adding a social media aspect to it that will have all group conversations protected by end-to-end encryption. Unlike the new community feature on Twitter that brings together like-minded users, the core idea of Communities on WhatsApp is that it allows multiple groups to be aggregated into one super-group.

But unlike social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, a WhatsApp Community won’t be openly discoverable. The phone numbers of users also won’t be publicly visible to all Community members. Only the admin and other members of a group can see them.

Read more
WhatsApp gets much-needed improvements for voice messages
WhatsApp messaging app icon.

WhatsApp is finally giving a much-needed overhaul to the voice messages system on its messaging platform, with a grab bag of new features that will start rolling out in the coming weeks. Let’s start with the trick that users have been demanding for years — fast playback for audio clips. WhatsApp will soon let users speed things up with controls for 1.5x and 2x voice message playback for both originally recorded and forwarded clips.

Another neat addition is background playback. WhatsApp users can leave a chat window and navigate other sections of the app or even jump into another chat while the voice message plays in the background. And if there are multiple audio clips lined up in succession, all of them will play in a queue while still in the background.

Read more