WhatsApp today announced a slew of new features that are set to roll out “over the next few weeks.” While we’ve heard about some of these for a while, it’s nice to get official confirmation.
The most notable addition is likely the ability to add contacts via a simple QR code, similar to the feature Snapchat introduced many moons ago; it’s a feature we’ve been hearing about since 2018. While people aren’t meeting up in person all that often these days because, you know, coronavirus, it’s a handy feature to have so you don’t have that should save some time over the slow manual process.
Other features announced today include:
- Animated stickers that make the feature a little more expressive
- Dark mode on the desktop so you can complete your dark mode aesthetic
- WhatsApp made it easier to focus on a single participant during a group call — just press and hold on their video.
- Users of the lightweight KaiOS can now share Statuses, WhatsApp’s equivalent to Instagram and Snapchat Stories.
You’ll need to have the latest version of WhatsApp installed, but you should see the feature show up on your device within a few weeks.
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