WhatsApp Beta Latest Updates In Android & iOS

WhatsApp is rolling out, for Android and iOS beta versions, a group video call maximization feature: tap and hold a contact video in the group video call and the video will be viewed in full-screen mode.

📝 WhatsApp beta for Android 2.20.194.11: what’s new?

WhatsApp restores the old Camera shortcut in the chat share sheet! Already enabled by default for all beta testers!https://t.co/cgimC5uMdv

— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) June 25, 2020

This is a feature that maximizes group video calls. According to a wabetainfo tweet, just tap and hold a contact in the group to see your video maximized in full screen. It is not yet clear when the feature will arrive in beta, and whether it will be taken to the stable version.

WhatsApp brings back camera shortcut to chat page

WhatsApp introduced the Messenger Rooms shortcut recently on its beta app. To do this, WhatsApp replaced the camera icon with the Messenger Rooms shortcut. It is important to note that the Messenger Room shortcut is only available for beta users and the feature has not been officially rolled out. So if you are trying hard to find the icon in your chat sheet, stop trying as you won’t be able to see it until WhatsApp rolls it out for all users.

WhatsApp is rolling out, for Android and iOS beta versions, a group video call maximization feature: tap and hold a contact video in the group video call and the video will be viewed in full-screen mode.

Thanks Hackerboi in my Discord server for reporting!

— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) June 19, 2020

In the latest WhatsApp 2.20.194.11 beta update, users will see the old camera shortcut back. In case you’re wondering where this is happening it’s under the attach button on chats. With the latest update there are now seven shortcuts including Messenger Rooms.

WhatsApp Introduced Dark Theme Mode For Android Beta Users

WhatsApp is finally rolling out, for all Android beta users, the Dark Theme feature!

WhatsApp Dark Mode is finally here, a much-awaited feature that has been in the rumor mill for months. It must be noted that dark mode is currently available only to the beta testers as of now. There is no word as to when the feature will be rolled out via the stable channel, but it shouldn't take very long.

WhatsApp's native dark mode is simply called Dark in the theme selection interface, and it imparts a dark green profile to the messaging app's entire UI with some contrasting colours here and there. Once dark mode is turn on, the device theme will switch from the default white theme to a dark grey theme and text will also chage from black to white. 

The WhatsApp home screen and the settings menu are now clad in a dark colour, but in case of the conversation interface, only the chat bubbles are dark while the background is white or it reflects any other colour users have set as background.

How To Enable Dark Theme

First You have to updated to the latest beta version the 2.20.13 installed

Then Go to Settings >> Chats >> Theme

Tap on that, and you’ll be able to pick whether you want WhatsApp’s look and feel to follow your device’s look and feel, or default to Light or Dark mode.

Light theme: it’s the usual white theme that you have always used in these years.

Dark theme: it’s the one that you wished to have in WhatsApp!

System default: WhatsApp identifies the theme used by your Android system (if light or dark), and sets it in WhatsApp automatically. It’s useful if you use the latest Android version (Android Q) that supports Dark theme system-wide.

Set by Battery Saver: available on Android 9 and lower versions, allows to automatically switch to light/dark theme, in according to your Battery Saver settings.

WhatsApp Working on Image Search and In App Browser Features

WhatsApp Beta New Developments

Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp has submitted the beta version of its next update that supports an in-app browser, a feature which is still under development.

To tackle the spread of fake news via its platform, WhatsApp's new beta version shows a test feature that would run Google-powered web-checks on images being shared on the app to verify their legitimacy. Called "Search by Image", the feature would search an image on the web that a user either sent or received in their chats using official Google application programming interfaces (APIs) to find similar or equal images on the web.

"If you choose to search an image, WhatsApp will alert you that it will be uploaded to Google after which WhatsApp will open the browser to show the results," WABetaInfo reported on Friday. The feature would help users understand if news is real or fake.

When you receive an image, you can try to search it on the web and read information related to that image on the web," the report said.

Apart from this, WhatsApp version 2.19.73 beta update also adds emojis natively on the app keyboard. The release and roll out specifications of the features remain unclear as of now.

WhatsApp is also testing an in-app browser on the platform to allow users to open links within the platform itself.

"If you choose to use the in-app browser when it will be available in future, you should not worry because WhatsApp or Facebook would not be able to access your search history because the feature uses an Android Application Programming Interface (API), so everything is managed by the system," the report said. 

The feature is also being built to detect unsafe pages using the "Safe Browsing" feature which was added to Android 8.1 last year. It would alert users when a page is infected with malicious content.

WhatsApp is finally adding stickers to its hugely popular messaging app

WhatsApp Introduced Stickers Feature

After Updating Delete for Everyone WhatsApp launched Stickers Feature. Firstly it is available in version 2.18.329 (WA Beta) of the Android application, IOS users will need to use version 2.18.100. “From emoji and camera features to Status and animated GIFs, we’re always looking to add new features that make communicating with friends and family on WhatsApp easy and fun “ WA Beta info wrote in blog.

Android owners can access the stickers via a new submenu added to the emoji section. Initially, only one basic sticker pack will be available, but users can download a variety of other packs including all types of stickers they wish as well. In addition, some third-party sticker packs will also be supported.  

WhatsApp rolls out stickers feature image : WA Beta

Requirements To Sticker Feature

You need to update your WhatsApp version to the 2.18.329 Android (the reception is enabled since the 2.18.310 Android) and the 2.18.100 iOS updates in order to remotely receive the activation of the Stickers feature.

Seen that it’s necessary the 2.18.100 update for IOS, all iPhones having iOS 7 won’t be able to use this feature.

Precedent versions will not receive the feature. You need to update to the latest version available.

Creating Stickers For WhatsApp

If you’d like to create your own stickers for WhatsApp, you can package them in an Android or iOS app. You can publish your sticker app like any other app to the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, and users who download and install your app will be able to start sending those stickers right away from within WhatsApp. Stickers on WhatsApp must be legal, authorized and acceptable.  

How to use Stickers

To use stickers in a chat, Open any chat or group. Next to the text input field, tap Emoji then simply tap the new sticker button and select the sicker you want to share. You can add new sticker packs by tapping the plus icon.

Stickers allow users to express themselves with cute and quirky faces, animals, objects, and more. Some of WhatsApp’s own packs include things like laughing teacups, crying broken hearts, and dinosaurs enjoying a birthday party. Total 12 Stickers Pack is being rolled out in this new WhatsApp update, added the report, including Cuppy by Minseung Song, Salty by Alisa Kryzhanovska, and Komo by Sanat Rath.

This new WhatsApp update includes Static Sticker only, but in the coming month, Animated Sticker will also be available in the coming weeks.

If you want more sticker options, tap the plus icon. Scroll to the bottom of the ALL STICKERS tab and tap GET MORE STICKERS. This will take you to Google Play Store, where you can download sticker apps.

To view the sticker packs you've downloaded, tap the plus icon > MY STICKERS tab. If you want to delete a specific sticker pack, tap Delete  > DELETE. To reorder your sticker packs, tap and drag the four-line icon next to a sticker pack.

Stickers will be available for Android and IPhone over the coming weeks.

WhatsApp Updated Delete For Everyone Feature

        WhatsApp has updated the time limit for Delete For Everyone

WhatsApp has updated its ‘Delete for Everyone’ feature, with respect to the time limit in which users can revoke messages. The new update gives users a time of up to 13 hours, 8 minutes and 16 seconds to delete the message.

 According to WABetaInfo reports, the Facebook-owned company has updated the ‘Recipient limit’ to restrict deletion of a message if the recipient didn’t receive its revoke request within 13 hours, eight minutes, and 16 seconds due to any reason, even if the phone was inactive.

What does it mean? If you delete a message for everyone, but the recipient won't receive the revoke request within 13h, 8m, 16s (maybe because the phone was off), the message will not be revoked.

This is a protection against modded users that revoked messages sent weeks, months and years ago without limitations. You can still delete a message for everyone within 1h, 8m, 16s as long as the recipient will receive your revoke request within 13h, 8m, 16s.

The source suggests that the code for this has been added already in WhatsApp beta for Android, but it has not been enabled yet. The other feature that is being worked upon is stickers support, and the source suggests that it is slated to be added this year itself.

Google Drive Gives Free Space For Whasapp Data

WhatsApp Android Backup Will No Longer Count Towards Google Drive Storage

Google announced yesterday that it’s reached an agreement with WhatsApp, so the latter’s backups will no longer count towards your Drive storage limit. In essence, for the foreseeable future, you have free, unlimited WhatsApp backups for life. This means that if you’re using the free Google Drive plan with 15GB, you’ll be able to backup your WhatsApp media separately, without using up your original quota.

This helps Android users to use the available Google Drive space to store important files and data other than the regular WhatsApp data. The handset also needs to have enough free space to create the Google Drive backup. Notably, apart from updating its FAQ page, WhatsApp has started sending emails to users to inform them about the fresh change.

Google recommends that users should manually backup their account before the 12th to make sure that no data gets lost when the new partnership comes into effect. Users can manually backup their WhatsApp data by going to Settings > Chat > Chat Backup and do a backup of their chats. We recommend using a WiFi connection while backing up for better speed and avoiding additional data charges by your internet service provider.

How To BackUp Whatsapp Chats and Datas to Google Drive?

• Open WhatsApp.
• Tap Menu > Settings > Chats > Chat backup.
• Tap Back up to Google Drive and select a backup frequency other than Never.
• Select a Google account that you’ll back up your chat history to. If you don’t have a Google account, tap Add account when prompted and enter your login credentials. Please remember the Google account you’re using for the backup.
• Tap Back up over to choose the network you wish to use for backup. Please note that backing up over a cellular data network might result in additional data charges.

Google sent email to all users

WhatsApp has expanded its partnership with Google to start offering Android users added benefits to use WhatsApp backups on Google Drive.  However, users that haven’t backed up their WhatsApp to Google Drive at least once in the past year will lose any backup in the cloud. That means you need to manually trigger a WhatsApp backup right now, if you’ve turned off the automatic feature.

On Android users have the option of backing up their chats and media to Google Drive. If one changes their Android phone they can restore the data when setting up WhatsApp on a new phone. Users can backup all of their messages and media into Google Drive, but it’s worth noting that once the content makes its way off of WhatsApp’s platform, it’s no longer protected by end-to-end encryption. However, the Gmail account needs to be the same, as the one to which the data was backed up in order for the restoration to be successful. Not all backups will be stored, though. Google said any packages that are more than a year old will be automatically removed, meaning if you have a backup but haven’t restored it, it will get deleted. To avoid any loss of data, you should do it manually via the app settings and going to Chats from where you can control what and when is saved remotely.

This option is only for Android users only; the iOS version of the app uses iCloud instead of Google Drive.

Under it, free users get a 15GB storage limit, with 100GB available for $1.99 a month, 200GB for $2.99 per month, and 2TB available for $9.99 a month. If you’ve paid for the storage plan of your choice, odds are you’re probably fine as far as space goes.