WhatsApp has kicked off the year with a raft of new features and changes rolled out to the beta versions of its Android and iOS apps.
The past week’s new features have been summarised by WABetaInfo, a site well-known for its detailed reports on WhatsApp features that are only in beta or still under development.
The first significant change is the addition of profile pictures for WhatsApp message notifications in iOS 15. Users of WhatsApp iOS beta version 2.22.1.1 will now see the person’s profile photo who sent them a message directly within the notification on their home screen. WhatsApp has enabled the feature, adding support through a new API available on iOS 15.
The image below shows an example of WhatsApp notifications on the latest iOS beta. WhatsApp has also started showing additional information in notifications informing users that someone replied to or mentioned them in a message on a group chat.
On Android, the past week’s updates were primarily focused on bug fixes and general improvements. But WABetaInfo also discovered new references to WhatsApp’s incoming Communities feature in Android beta version 2.21.25.17.
WhatsApp Communities will allow admins to organise multiple groups under a single, overarching channel, according to WABetaInfo’s reports. That would provide similar functionality to what’s currently available from one of WhatsApp’s most prominent rivals — Telegram.
This capability, alongside support for more members per channel, has made Telegram popular for community safety groups. Lastly, WhatsApp Business beta users on Android and iOS can search their chats and message using a new advanced search filter.
“When you use these options, you can quickly view results that meet your condition,” WABetaInfo explained.
Users can also combine different conditions to narrow down search results further. For example, they can search for photos from non-contacts specifically.
Source: mybroadband
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