News & Reviews:   Whatsapp

WhatsApp, by far the most used messaging app in Malaysia is facing some stiff competition from its rivals, especially from Telegram. In fact, back in January 2021, a lot of WhatsApp users made the switch to Telegram after the former’s questionable change in privacy policy.

More than a year later, the Meta-owned messaging app is now trying to retain as well as win over users back again with a slew of new features currently in the works. These include message reactions, polls, true multi-device support and the ability to send files up to 2GB in size.

A message reaction in WhatsApp? Yup, you read that right. The WhatsApp team is finally working on this feature and it's currently out in beta testing for some beta users. The last we heard about this was roughly seven months ago, so let's check out if there's any new progress.

The Multi-Device feature for WhatsApp is perhaps the most useful feature the app has. Of course, the feature does have some limitations. Case in point, it doesn't allow you to link multiple mobile devices. But sources indicate that this could change in the coming weeks.

WhatsApp may potentially be adding a new restriction in future versions of the app which limits users from mass forwarding messages. Spotted in the latest Google Play Beta Program version of the messaging app, the new restriction will only allow messages to be forwarded to just one group chat at a time, presumably in order to curb the spread of misinformation and fake news. 

Shared by WABetaInfo, the 2.22.7.2 version of the WhatsApp Google Play Beta Program will mark a message that has previously been forwarded. Moreover, it would then not be possible to forward it to more than one group chat at a time.

If your group of friends is always undecided about where to eat or what movie to see, then this upcoming WhatsApp feature will definitely help in making a decision. Recently submitted to its beta for iOS version 22.6.0.70, WhatsApp is currently working on a tool that would allow users to create polls in group chats!

Having WhatsApp groups for various reasons like a working chat group or group projects are the norm but sometimes it can get annoying with the number of spam messages. Just recently, WABetainfo just found out that the WhatsApp team is working on a new Communities function for that.

Chat history migration is still a problem for WhatsApp users who switch from an Android phone to an iPhone or vice versa. In the near future, the problem will go away as the messaging platform is testing the feature in WhatsApp Messenger beta for iOS 22.2.74.

Now that Multi-Device is on WhatsApp, the next thing that's important for users would be authentication. After all, you won't want someone to get access to your chat by stealing your phone or laptop, right? Well, that's currently something the company is working on.

The Android version of WhatsApp might introduce more photo editing tools to users soon. If everything worked well with the beta, the next stable update would bring new brushes and a function to blur images.

It's understood that when we listen to a voice chat in WhatsApp, we can't leave the chat room until it's finished otherwise it would get cut off whenever we do. Well, the WhatsApp team is actually working on that and the new feature will be rolling out for iOS first globally.