This year’s WWDC saw Apple hugely improve the iMessage app. It got some great new features and you can read all about it in this article we’d written last month. The messaging platform is one of the key features of the iOS ecosystem and still continues to be one of the main reasons why iOS users don’t switch to Android. No wonder then that Facebook is taking steps to ensure that their WhatsApp messenger is up to the mark and ready to take on any competition.
A German tech blog by the name of Macerkopf found and tested the beta for the latest version of WhatsApp: version 2.16.7.257. The website discusses a few features that have caught our fancy.
Music Share
The beta has the ability to share music from your on-phone library as well as from your iTunes library, i.e., music stored locally on the phone and on the iCloud by Apple Music!
Rich Links
You know how any website links you share are displayed with a small thumbnail? The beta version has a similar feature for your music. Any music shared will be displayed with a thumbnail of album art and a short description of the artist/year/album/etc.
Improved Groups
Groups get an update with the ability to form public groups. Now, given that WhatsApp is essentially a one-to-one communication app, public groups are a little bit complicated to execute. The admin of any public group will be able to create a link for the group and share it. Anyone with the link can join the group. The admin can withdraw the link at any time to close the group.
A better feature for us is the ability to “mention” someone in group chats using their name. Like we do on Facebook or twitter. That’s going to make conversations a lot more coherent in the groups!
Sidenote: WhatsApp for Android already has this feature where you can reply to a specific message from your group chat.
Redesigned Emojis
Better (read bigger) emojis are coming to WhatsApp. Intelligent emojis were a bit part of Apple’s presentation in the WWDC as well. So it’s natural that Facebook will take a big leap in that direction as well. We are likely to see a Facebook like sticker database that can be downloaded on demand.
There’s no release date in sight for the new version yet. But given that a public beta is out, it’s safe to assume that we can see an official launch within 3-6 months. Our guess is that Facebook would like to launch their fully functional new version alongside, or just before, Apple launches iOS 10.
And of course, our friends at Reddit have already compiled a complete list of links that you will need if you’re interested in trying out the beta for yourself. Here’s the page: WhatsApp Beta.
Please note that you’ll need to have a jailbroken iPhone to try out this beta release. So if you don’t want to mess with your phone, we suggest you stay away from this. In case you do end up installing the beta, please write to us with your experience. We’d love to hear more about it. We might even publish it on our blog for the benefit of other users. So go ahead and help out your brothers and sisters from the community!
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