What is New WhatsApp Status?

WhatsApp has updated again with a new Status feature! You may have updated your version to include a choice of a video call, and now it’s a cool feature of Status Update! Today’s age is of pictures and videos more than text, and the pictures and videos should tell your story!

So, it is because of competition by Snapchat? May be yes! But the young generation using WhatsApp should be really happy. Now Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, all are making maximum use of the image messaging and audio-video technology at all possible places. Have you read about why Facebook has gone ahead with AutoPlay Videos with Sound instead of criticism? Now there is another feature with use of media, and as usual, some will like, and some will hate!

How to use WhatsApp New status:

You know it! If you don’t see anything new in your App, you have to go ahead and update it! So, once you complete that, you will see a new ‘Status’ tab on WhatsApp toolbar (similar to Snapchat). The text update is available as current status, and then when you tap it, you have a choice to update it with new features.

WhatsApp has also added a quick user guide in this version in their style. It shows quick features along with video and image clips of what all things you can do throughout the day to keep changing your updates as per your location and part of activities.

When you select the new update button, a camera opens, and if you tap the circle, you can take a picture; if you hold the circle, you can take a video. This picture or video becomes your status for that moment. Isn’t that cool? You can also add an existing media from your Album.

Detailed Steps: (If you have still not changed to new status settings!)

Once you install the WhatsApp latest version, go to the Status tab. Tap on the icon of broken circle with a plus sign. It makes the camera open, and with a click or long press, you can take a pic or a video respectively. There is a facility to edit video as GIF also. Send to status means all (as per your selection) will start seeing your new media status.

You have options to choose, who can see your status updates. On Apple phone, you have to select the options through privacy tab. On Android, you can go to Status Privacy settings (using the three vertical dots on WhatsApp home page and select from ‘My Contacts,’ ‘My contacts except…’ and ‘Only share with…’ options. The settings option remains same.

What can you do with New Status?

The additional features related to new status are: you can reply to someone’s status update, provided both have the latest version. It is possible for you to comment on any pic or video. The reply goes with your status update thumbnail.

The blue circles around you contacts will indicate they have started using the new feature and the way you can see likes and views on Facebook; now you can see who all have seen your status (the number of people as well as their names).

As WhatsApp has crossed the magic 1 billion mark for only a handful of Apps crossing this mark, any new feature will have a lot of users using it quickly spreading the word around. The video feature is being used extensively within a few days of release and within a few days, this another media related feature is going to give a tough completion to Snapchat. Any changes to WhatsApp have a high impact on the communication of smartphone users.

What if you don’t like this status feature?

There are some users, who are not fond of pictures and videos and they like the text status. You will find forums where people are criticising the new feature, and some may prefer to stay with the old version and existing features. Those who have already migrated to the latest version can go back only with APK download. The latest Android update is version 4.4.

List of latest features:

There are latest features like message receipts, group messaging, sharing media, read receipts, secure messaging, notifications, syncing contacts, international calling, voice calling (voice over data), video calling (audio and video over data). These features are simply replacing the regular phone calling facilities along with chat and additional video calling.

WhatsApp views:

During interviews, WhatsApp Product Manager Randall Sarafa explained that the company is expecting to encourage users to update status more frequently and like Facebook, they may like to update it throughout the day. The people who engage with you regularly will only show up in the status updates and that too only from the existing contact list. By the way, you can mute updates if you don’t want them.

Limiting to share the status with contacts is in line with WhatsApp’s security and privacy policies. It was initially rolled out in Europe and quickly got to other countries also.  The new status feature is available for Android, iOS and Windows phones.

Use of Camera in WhatsApp:

If you have started using the new feature, you will notice that the embedded feature here is the WhatsApp camera redesigned for pictures, video, and GIFs. You can use emoji, text and other media also. As the camera is present in most of the today’s smartphones, WhatsApp would like to use it effectively going forward. The Facebook and all group companies are moving quickly towards maximising the use of all audio-video features in your mobile phones.

Summary:

WhatsApp’s latest media based status update is in line with the Company’s upgrades to all their platforms. It’s a cool feature and technically very advanced, but you can’t predict how many of those billion + users are going to like it! It is a complete revamp of their status feature, and we hope you like it! It will be interesting to see how effectively the users will use it.

Kitty Gupta
Latest posts by Kitty Gupta (see all)