Whatsapp has been rolling out a revamped user interface in line with Google’s Android design guidelines popularly known as Material Design for the last one month. That has been limited to the Whatsapp website but as of the last two days, it has been rolling out to all users via the Play Store.
I have the app from the website with Material Design on one of my devices and the rest have the Holo-themed Whatsapp before the update. I got it yesterday early in the morning. And so have all my friends. As per interactions with the app, version 2.12.84, there is nothing different from the version on the website. I noticed that I don’t have the option to backup my chats with Google Drive like I do on my other devices with the update from the website.
While this is a big step (the nicer-looking Material Design themes were one of the reasons third party Whatsapp apps were popular in the first place), it is still not what Material Design purists and enthusiasts would want but it’s commendable. It usually takes long for such changes to take place but Whatsapp surprised us all when we least expected. Even then, Telegram Messenger’s Material Design is to die for.
