WhatsApp will soon be updated with a host of new features, which includes letting you download all the data it collects. In addition, the app will allow multiple users to get on a conference call within a Group on the platform. These features are some of the new additions to Whatsapp.
There are some more privacy-centric features, which let users control what kind of content is accessible on the app. For instance, WhatsApp will roll out an update within the app that will separate your WhatsApp Image folders, from the regular Gallery on the phone. This way you can ensure that the content isn’t visible to everyone accessing your phone.
Users can now download their WhatsApp account information report, which is the info that Whatsapp shares with other apps. This is accessible under the settings menu on the app. Once you place a request, Whatsapp will send it within three days to your registered number.
Features Coming to WhatsApp Soon
- Content visibility - You can only see content shared via WhatsApp
- Click to Chat - Message anyone without saving their number
- Make conference calls to multiple people on groups
- Download user information from WhatsApp
However, there is one feature that users can try out right away. How many times have you added a person’s number to your contact list, just so that you can chat with them on WhatsApp? Well, you don’t need to do that anymore because of WhatsApp’s ‘Click to Chat’ feature.
‘Click to Chat’ allows users to chat on WhatsApp with numbers that aren’t added to their contact lists. If the a person using a particular mobile number is a Whatsapp user, you can chat with him or her directly, without saving their number.
How to Use ‘Click to Chat’
The feature is already available for Android mobile users of the app and you can even try it out on the web version of WhatsApp. Here’s how it works:
- Open this WhatsApp URL on your mobile or desktop browser
- Add mobile number to the URL without + and 0 between the number you message
- You will be redirected to the WhatsApp app on mobile, and WhatsApp web version on the PC
- Start messaging the person without adding him/her to your phone’s contact list
This option will come in handy for people who message or call certain numbers infrequently. This way, you don’t have to add the person, just because you have to message them via WhatsApp.
Other than ‘Click to Chat’, WhatsApp recently updated its Groups feature. Now, the admin isn’t the only one who can regulate content circulating on the group.
Besides ‘Click to Chat’ most of the other features are likely to roll out in the coming weeks to all users.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)