WhatsApp is having a few features up its sleeve slated to go live next year. The popular messaging app which Facebook bought for $19.3 billion has been testing some of the features for a while now and hopefully, launch them in 2020 to users everywhere. As of October 2019, WhatsApp which is one of Facebook’s four billion-user properties had 1.6 billion monthly active users and over half a billion daily users with WhatsApp Status having more than half a billion daily active Status users worldwide.
Dark Mode
WhatsApp has been testing dark mode on its app since the trend began early this year. So far the dark mode on the beta app has been reserved for settings(notifications settings, data and storage settings, chats settings, and even account setting).
WhatsApp seems to follow the system-wide dark mode when that toggle is enabled as seen in the picture above. Funtouch UI on the Vivo V17 Pro has this toggle that brings dark mode to WhatsApp.
When this mode goes live, WABetaInfo says that users will have the option to link it up to your phone’s Battery Saver mode. WhatsApp will feature a black background with white text on top.
Reverse-image search
WhatsApp is working on bringing reverse image search to its app and could potentially have a positive impact against catfishing or spreading misinformation. Users can search by image by clicking on it and using Google to reverse search the image to verify it.
This feature will be powered by Google Custom Search that gives the app search engine capabilities.
Self-destructing messages
WhatsApp is also working on self-destructing messages which will automatically delete themselves to stop prying eyes from snooping on your conversations.
This feature first became available on Snapchat and then Instagram later had it too.
It was previously called ‘Disappearing Messages’ but now this feature goes by ‘Delete Messages’
Here’s how that’ll work
The setting will be added in Contact Info or Group Settings (only administrators can enable the feature in a group). If you switch on the feature, you can set the message expiration time.
This feature will work for both group chats and one-to-one chats too.
One other thing – Ads are coming
WhatsApp is bringing ads to WhatsApp Status similar to those that appear on your Instastories. On Instastories, Facebook has already begun testing back to back ads.
Ads everywhere
Keep up with everything WhatsApp here.
