Throughout 2021 WhatsApp has rolled out a series of new features and updates, some of which have been criticized by users and regulators. This year, Meta's messaging application will also re-release many features that users have been waiting for.
Last year, WhatsApp brought new features such as voice and video calls on the desktop, transfer of chat history from iOS to Android, automatically disappearing messages and photos, and much more. Not only that, they also implemented a new privacy policy which caused controversy.
In addition, WhatsApp is also testing many new features, some of which are already accessible to beta users. The following are candidates for six new WhatsApp features that will be released this year, as quoted from Business Insider, Monday (3/1/2022).
Message reactions
WhatsApp is currently testing the message reactions feature. This feature is actually already available on several social media such as Twitter and Facebook.
As the name implies, this feature allows users to react to chats they receive in the form of emojis. There are currently six emojis that have been discovered in the trial. Users can also see which of their friends left a reaction emoji.
Communities
Communities is one of the big features of WhatsApp that is being tested. This feature allows users to combine several WhatsApp groups at once into one community.
Based on a report from WABetaInfo, currently users can combine up to 10 groups into one community. There will be an announcements section accessible only to group admins where messages can be sent to all groups in the community.
Transfer chats from Android to iOS
Last year WhatsApp released a feature that allows users to transfer chat history from iOS to Android. This feature has long been requested by users because previously transferring WhatsApp chats between platforms could not be done easily.
But WhatsApp did not simultaneously announce the opposite feature, namely the transfer of chat from Android to iOS. Fortunately this feature is already in development stage and is predicted to be rolled out in the near future.
Sticker shop on desktop and web
Stickers are one of the most important features of WhatsApp but this feature is rather limited on desktop and web. Currently, users cannot access the sticker store on the desktop and the web to search for the desired sticker packs, even though this feature is available on the mobile application.
The good news is that the beta version of WhatsApp Desktop is now able to try out the sticker shop which is still in the trial stage. This feature is expected to be released in the near future.
More control for group admin
WhatsApp group admins will be more powerful thanks to this new feature. WhatsApp is currently piloting an update to give group admins more control.
The control in question is that WhatsApp group admins will have the ability to delete messages sent by group members. If the message is deleted by the group admin, other participants will also be notified.
Business Nearby
WhatsApp is developing a new feature that makes it easier for users to search for businesses on its app. With this feature there will be a new section in the app called 'business nearby'.
Users can search for businesses such as restaurants, grocery stores, fashion stores, and others on WhatsApp and sort them using the existing filters. These filters are similar to those for filtering photos, videos and GIFs on WhatsApp
