WhatsApp has had an eventful year. After a big drama surrounding the new terms of use in the first half, the company behind the popular app was able to focus on new features in the second half. A line that will continue into 2022.
In the first week of the new year, the company is already introducing its first new addition. Not for the general public, but for the beta testers of the iOS version of the application.
WhatsApp uses photos for notifications
WhatsApp is working on a new way to display notifications on an iPhone. The folks at WABetaInfo discover the new functionality in the latest beta version of the iOS app. People who receive a notification from the app currently only see the person’s name and possibly the message. That’s about to change, considering WhatsApp also wants to include the contact’s profile picture in the notification.
Other than that, there’s just not a whole lot clear about the functionality yet. For example, we don’t know when WhatsApp will roll it out to the general public. There are also questions about the settings that come with the feature. It is not clear if the functionality, for example, can be disabled by users for privacy reasons. Time will tell.
Lots of news in 2021
As mentioned above, WhatsApp 2021 has not been idle. Yes, the company had to deal with quite a bit of bullshit when it changed its terms of use. It certainly lost some users to Telegram, but overall, the platform has come off well. That’s partly due to the many features it rolled out. For example, a new way to use the service on multiple devices appeared, it became possible to hide certain data from strangers, and WhatsApp released new heart emoji.
Want to stay up to date on everything WhatsApp is doing? Then be sure to check out this page!