In 2017, are you using all of WhatsApp’s newest features?

WhatsApp has fast become the world’s most popular messaging app ever. With over 1.2 billion users already, it has percolated down to all walks of life around the world. Every day, people look on in anticipation at what new features have been added to the already friendly interface.

NDTV’s Gadget 360 recently had an in-depth look at the Facebook-owned app’s coolest features that came out this year. Here is a short list of them. Did you know about these? Are you already using these features? 

Revamped Snapchat-like Status feature

This was easily the most important update of the year, released in February. The new Status feature replaced the old text form of status to allow users to change their status to a short video or multiple photos that will automatically disappear in 24 hours. It overhauled the way users interacted on the app daily.

Media sharing limit increased to 30

For a very long time, you may have tore your hair out because of the limit of pictures/videos that can be attached at a single time. But all that has changed now and you can attach up to 30 media files at a single time. The first changes happened in January, but was soon rolled out to everybody.

Recall or revoke feature for sent messages

While this feature has not been released publicly, it is being used by many beta testers right now and can be expected to release soon. It’s an important addition because it lets you recall sent messages for a certain time period. It is understood that users can also edit sent messages. The feature was seen on an iPhone beta version and recently on WhatsApp Web as well.

Two-step verification

This feature was rolled out in February to all users as an optional security feature. Users can now verify their number when they install the app on a new device more securely. Users will have to provide a six-digit passcode (created by them) when registering their phone number with WhatsApp again — or any attempt to verify their phone number through the app.

Transfer of all file types

The company is slowly rolling out support for all types of file transfers (including archives) on Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone. It means you will no longer have any problems in sharing video in several formats, MP3 songs, or even APK files. But the file sharing limit will still be 128MB on iOS, 64MB on Web, and 100MB on Android.

Ability to queue messages on iPhone

While WhatsApp on Android had this ability for a while now, iPhone users finally got it in January. Now, all users can just send a WhatsApp message to a group/individual even when connectivity is unavailable, and the message will be sent automatically once they get connectivity again.

Photo Bundling

WhatsApp has introduced some great features to enhance media sharing. Photo Bundling feature allows users to send photos and videos to your contacts as an album. The receiver will receive pictures as an album and not as one picture after another as before. Once the album is opened, all images will be shown on a single page. iPhone users already have this feature and is being rolled out for Android users.

Video Streaming

Although this feature was first spotted in Android beta, it was rolled out widely first for iPhones. This feature allows users to start watching shared videos even while they're being downloaded in the background. Wi-Fi or cellular data will be used to buffer a shared video while it's still being downloaded. Earlier, one had to wait for the videos to download completely before watching them. 

Photo Filter features

Recently, WhatsApp added the ability to add colour filters to media you send in chats for iPhone users. After selecting the media you want to send, swipe up to pull out five photo filters that you can choose from — Pop, B&W, Cool, Film, and Chrome. More filters are expected to be on the way.