Facebook-owned messaging platform would recognise 2018 as the year when it saw mixed responses from the world and its users. The platform has been found culprit of spreading hatred and fake news, ably governed under its ambit of encryption and it also entered the payment space in the country.
Having said that, the messaging app, with over 200 million monthly daily active users in India, has been showered with a slew of new features this year that have caught everyone’s fancy for one reason or the other.
Here’s a look at some of the top features that users warmed up to and made it popular.
Save Chats on Google Drive
In what was seen as a god-send move, WhatsApp this year announced that from November onwards, your Google Drive’s total storage will not include the space occupied by backed up WhatsApp messages, letting you keep them on the drive for free.
This feature was first informed when Google and WhatsApp had joined hands in August this year, to make storage access easier for users. For those who haven’t backed up their WhatsApp data on Google Drive, WhatsApp had asked users to backup messages before 12 November.
The save to Google Drive option has been there for a while, but the freedom to do that without eating into the space on Google Drive caught everyone’s eye. Even though, the messages backed up are no longer encrypted.
Group Video Calling
WhatsApp on Tuesday announced complete roll out of the group video calling feature on both Android and iOS. WhatsApp will also allow up to 4 people on a single group call. WhatsApp also confirmed that group video calls are also going to be end-to-end encrypted.
Just start a one-on-one voice or video call and tap the new "add participant" button in the top right corner to add more contacts to the call,” WhatsApp said in a blog back then.
New Features for WhatsApp Groups
With an aim to make its platform more user-friendly, Facebook-owned WhatsApp on Tuesday, 15 May, rolled out better administrative controls and other features for Groups.
WhatsApp Groups have been misused to peddle fake information and most of that happens because, nobody (even WhatsApp) is unable to read the content owing to its encryption standards.
Under “Admin controls” in Group settings, as the name suggests, admins can restrict who can change the group's subject, icon and description. These features are available for Android and iPhone users. In addition, WhatsApp has also made it harder for people to be re-added to Groups they have left.
Forwarded Chats Label
This was also the year when WhatsApp added a forward label to all messages shared multi fold. The feature indicates which messages the user received have been forwarded to him/her in the group or individually.
In its reply to the IT Ministry seeking an explanation on the matter, WhatsApp said it was testing a new label in India that highlights when a message has been forwarded versus composed by the sender.
While announcing the new feature, WhatsApp said this extra context will help make one-on-one and group chats easier to follow.
WhatsApp Payment Goes Live
The messaging app from Facebook finally got its clearance from the National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI), the governing body for retail payments in the country. The platform was updated with Payments which has been deployed over the country’s Unified Payment Interface (UPI).
The messaging app from Facebook has partnered with banks like ICICI, HDFC and Axis Bank to facilitate the transactions between users. The feature was initially available to a limited number of users, as a part of a beta launch and we’re yet to see its nationwide roll out.
WhatsApp Forward to 5 People
WhatsApp India rolled out its latest feature which allows users to forward messages to just five chats. The forwarded message limit ensures that people cannot send a single message, picture or video to more than 5 chats at a time.
This, it believes, could end up hindering the flow of sending forwarded messages on a large scale, helping contain the spread of such messages.
Create Stickers and Send
WhatsApp Stickers is the latest feature that the Facebook-owned messaging platform has added to its feature set. This feature allows users to send .png stickers to friends on their contact list in addition to emojis and gifs.
The feature has been a huge hit among WhatsApp users. The company had introduced a limited number of sticker packs, but now you can customise stickers of your own using third-party applications on the Google Play Store.
The biggest advantage of this is that you don’t need to know any sort of intricate coding. Rather, one just has to download an app and create your own stickers using thumbnails and images.
Contacts Us for WhatsApp India
Users in India are now getting the option to Contact Us on WhatsApp, enabling them to report on any grievance or issues that look suspicious. The feature is available on the app itself and can be accessed via the WhatsApp on web option as well.
Once you hit Contact Us, you’ll see a form pop-up (as seen below), asking for your email address and mention the subject of your issue related to WhatsApp. You can even add screenshots to validate your concern
Picture-in-Picture Mode
WhatsApp users on Android finally got to use the picture-in-picture mode, which lets them watch videos without going full screen. The feature first made its debut in beta mode for users back in October and was pushed officially via an update for all devices.
The feature lets users watch videos from YouTube, Facebook or Instagram on the chat screen itself. All other videos, shared natively from the messaging app, will open in full screen mode.
WhatsApp on JioPhone
In 2018, the popular messaging app was also created for a unique device such as the JioPhone,a 4G feature phone. The app, designed specifically for the ultra-affordable device, was supposed to launch much earlier than September but after a long wait, users were able to download the app available on the JioStore.
On WhatsApp, you can do all the basic things like send and share videos, reply to a chat, create groups and even send a voice note.
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