Last year, the Facebook-owned messaging platform introduced several new features in order to deliver a seamless user experience. In 2019 too, WhatsApp seemingly has similar plans. WhatsApp has already started rolling out new features for its users. The instant messaging platform is reportedly working to sort the status updates. WhatsApp launched the Status feature around two years ago and ever since then the company has been bringing small updates to the feature to make it a useful one. The Status feature was copied from Snapchat, but it is a deniable fact that like Snapchat stories, the WhatsApp status didn’t gain much popularity. The WhatsApp status isn’t as interactive as Instagram, and looks like WhatsApp accepts that, which is why the messaging platform is working on polishing the feature in order to make it more interactive.
WhatsApp New Status Feature: How It Works
According to Mashable, WhatsApp is testing a new feature to make its status more engaging and interactive. According to the report, WhatsApp is said to be testing an algorithm for its Status feature to sort updates based on the user’s preference. Currently, the WhatsApp status feature shows updates from family, friends, and all contacts. And it doesn’t segregate the statuses based on the most interacted contact or not. It shows updates from all contact whether the user is converse with them or not. The upcoming status feature is going to sort the updates based on who the user interacts the most and so on.
The report suggests that the Facebook-owned messaging platform has already started testing out the new status feature with some iPhone users in Brazil, Spain and India. It is worth noting that most WhatsApp features first come to iPhone users and are later pushed to Android and Windows users. The report further suggests that the feature will be soon rolled out to all Android users globally.
With the new status feature, WhatsApp will sort status based on whose update is most relevant to the user. The algorithm will be based on several factors like -- whose Statuses the user views most frequently, who the user interacts with regularly, and so on. The report further reveals that WhatsApp will retain the user information that it will collect to make their predictions about the user. The report also notes that the information will be saved as backups.
WhatsApp Business Beta App for iOS Launched
In other news, WhatsApp has launched the beta version of WhatsApp Business to its iOS users last week. Same as the case with standard WhatsApp Beta app for iOS, the WhatsApp Business Beta is also limited to a small fraction of users at the moment. That said, WhatsApp will inform the users whenever there's a slot available inside the beta programme so that users can join.
