Three Good Reasons to Update WhatsApp Right Now
No app is completely “finished” – even if you like it inside and out, it can always be a little better. WhatsApp is the world’s most popular chat app, but it’s not without room for improvement. And improve it with these three new features that are already available to WhatsApp users around the world.
WhatsApp finally has reaction emojis
At the moment, most chat apps have emoji reactions – Facebook Messenger, iMessage, Telegram… but not WhatsApp, at least until the latest update. This feature has just been added to another favorite Meta chat service.
You’ll have six options to start with, including the usual suspects : Thumbs Up, Red Heart, Face with Tears of Joy, Open Mouth Face, Crying Face, and Folded Hands. ” The latter may be the only surprise, but it’s good. I know I get a lot of messages in which I would like to respond with a quick “thank you”, but neither a thumbs up nor a heart seems particularly appropriate.
If WhatsApp missed your favorite emoji, don’t worry. The company says it will “add an even wider range of expressions” in the future, though no details were given. I, for one, would like to know if WhatsApp plans to add the ability to choose from your entire emoji library, just like in Facebook Messenger. Since both apps are built by Meta, it’s not hard to think that they can handle it.
Sharing files 2 GB at a time
WhatsApp’s file sharing options have been frustrating for a long time. The app limited the size of each individual file to just 100MB, which isn’t exactly generous given how large photos, videos, and other media files are these days. However, as part of the rollout of the latest feature, WhatsApp is updating the data limit to 2GB for end-to-end encrypted file sharing. Just make sure you’re connected to Wi-Fi before sharing too many large files if you’re on a limited data plan.
WhatsApp groups can now include up to 512 people
Have you ever thought, “Hey, I wish I could talk to 500 people at the same time?” Now’s your chance: WhatsApp now supports group chats with up to 512 people. Good luck keeping order in these conversations.
To check if these features are available to you, please make sure you are running the latest version of WhatsApp on iOS, Android, macOS and/or Windows. However, if you don’t see a new update, or if your app doesn’t have these three features, don’t despair: the company plans to roll out new updates to all users within the next week, so you may need to wait a bit before you can respond with an emoji. .
[ engadget ]