Last Updated on October 7, 2021 by Dayanand Kadella
After Mark Zuckerberg purchasing WhatsApp, he has brought some of the greatest changes into its functionality and quality of the services it has provided to its users. According to a report Facebook-owned WhatsApp is working on some of the highly-anticipated features such as “Disappearing Mode, Read Later, WhatsApp Multi-Device Support and WhatsApp Flash Calls, and others launched and were expected to be launched in 2021. And it has improvised at its best.
Here are the top features WhatsApp was expected to launch and improve this year.
1. Multi-device support WhatsApp Feature:
WhatsApp has launched this feature for its beta users where users can log in up to 4 different devices, at the same time. Devices can be Web, desktop and tablets. This feature is only available for WhatsApp beta users which is already full now. As shown in the picture below.
To enable this feature you just have to tap on the three vertical dots on your mobile screen, at the right corner, and click on the link device –where the earlier WhatsApp web option was shown. If you don’t have an updated version of WhatsApp then you may be asked to update your application from the Google Play Store or from the Apple store. Scan the QR Code on the screen of the device which you want to link, from your mobile camera. As scanning be done successfully your WhatsApp will open up on the device.
One more advantage of this feature is that you don’t have to keep your mobile phone connected to the internet while using WhatsApp on the other device which you have linked. But unfortunately, this feature is only available for WhatsApp Beta users. Not for all.
2. Read Later Feature:
This is another cool feature which is yet not launched. According to reports, Facebook-owned WhatsApp is continuously working on its upcoming feature; ‘Read Later‘, which is an interesting and improvised chat archival system. On both Android and iOS devices, this new feature will replace the preexisting feature, that “Archived Chats”.
3. Joinable Group Calls:
WhatsApp has launched its Joinable Calls – New UI feature in version 2.21.140.11. This feature was originally launched for WhatsApp Beta iOS users but it is also available for Android WhatsApp Beta users too. WhatsApp Group calls are the inspiration after this feature available on Facebook messenger and other video calling apps. Same as individual calls you can now call to as a group where call forward to all the group members and can join one-by-one.
You can test this feature by yourself by going to any group you are in, just clicking on the “Phone Call Button” at the top navigation of the group.
Another important thing to be noted here is that this feature is for a limited number of members in the group. You can call up to 7 group members at a time.
There is another group call option named ass “Create a Room” which will redirect you Facebook messenger where you can call unlimited. This will create a link for the Facebook Messenger chat room in which your friends and non-friends can join the call if they are available online.
4. Disappearing Mode:
This feature is for those who don’t want to allow their message available for more than 7 days in the receiver’s inbox. By enabling this feature your message will automatically be disappeared from both sides –sender and receiver.
This doesn’t make sure that your media will be disappeared from the receiver’s device. If the receiver downloads the file into its device storage then it will not be removed itself. And also if a Snapshot of the text message is taken then again it will stay in the storage of the receiver.
To enable this, tap on the group or contact number you want to turn Disappearing Mode on or off >Disappearing Message and select on or off. If the user opens or not, your sent message will be disappeared automatically after 7 days.
But this feature may be improved because currently this feature has 7 days period but soon there will be other two options, 24 hours and 1 month, will be launched, as per the WAbetaInfo report.
5. Best Media Quality:
WhatsApp has released a new feature for the Quality of the Photos user uploads. Earlier it was a problem with photos and media on the quality, it was that they were compressed, and due to that their quality did not remain the same if uploaded HD, as it was uploaded on WhatsApp.
But now WhatsApp has given options to its users to upload the best high-quality media. Now you can select the best quality to make sure your quality not be compromised.
You can enable this by tapping on three vertical dots in the right corner of the screen. Then >Setting>Storage and data>Media Upload Quality, where you can choose the quality of the media file to be sent.
6. Audio Playback Speed:
This is another cool feature that is time-saving. I like this personally because it gives me access to cover 2minute of audio in just one 1minutes by playing it at 2X speed. There are 1X, 1.5X, and 2X options in the audio playback speed, you can choose if after playing the audio.
7. Flash Calls:
Flash calls feature helps users in the process of verification. It is an alternative to get verified through SMS. Using this, automatic verification method, WhatsApp will call you to verify your contact number, and on successful verification, the call will end automatically.
Note that:
- This feature won’t be available on iOS WhatsApp users: As Apple doesn’t offer its users any public API to read the call history, therefore, this feature will not be implemented on WhatsApp iOS.
- This is an optional feature: This is an optional feature and you are not bound to allow flash call verification. You can still continue logging into WhatsApp by confirming the 6-digit code, you received via SMS or call.
- This is only for verification purposes: WhatsApp will not access any call history during this call. It will just look after comparing the last entry from your call history with the phone number that’s supposed to call you. This feature will only be available at the time of verification at the time of logging in and will not be used in other situations during using WhatsApp.
8. Adjust Last Seen status on a contact-by-contact basis:
This privacy is for all the users of WhatsApp. Earlier it has three features in this last seen privacy i.e. Everyone, My Contacts and Nobody. But now WhatsApp is going to add another option “Contact-by-Contact” in the last seen privacy feature.
From the setting you can click on the >Account>Privacy>Last seen and adjust it as you like.
9. WhatsApp logout option:
On mobile devices, there is no option to log out, currently. You’ve to change your mobile number or delete your account. But for WhatsApp Web and WhatsApp Desktop, where you’ve linked your account, there is a log-out option from the browser, you linked and logged in.
To log out from a linked device go to >Three dot option at the right corner>Linked Devices>click the linked device> option will pop up to log out from the browser you logged in. You can also log out from the device which you have linked to your mobile phone.
10. View Once:
This feature is for Photo media. If the user wants to make it available for the view then it has to enable it during uploading the photo. As the user will click on the media it will only be shown once. But if the user takes a snapshot of the media-opened, then it is available from its storage.
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11. Message Info:
The message info feature tells you who and when have read your message and who have received your message but yet not checked or checked your message.
Here is a detail of how this feature works for different types of messages:
- Text Message: When you click on the “i” option after selecting the particular text message you want to check the Read by and Delivered to status, a list of contacts will come on the screen which will show you the status with the exact time message were checked.
And also you check for individual chat you can check the Read by and Delivered to Status with the exact time.
- Audio Message: For audio info, it can be shown as Played by, Seen by and Delivered to with exact time the audio was opened and played.
- Photo and Video Message: For photos and videos this info includes Seen by and Delivered to.
- In Open Once Feature: If you send media by enabling the “Open Once” feature, the message info will be shown as Opened by, Seen by, and Delivered to.
Message info also includes remaining contacts, if sent messages in the group chats.