Today, WhatsApp announced that the Status feature is getting a ton of new features. The update enabling all these new features has already rolled out to users globally and should be available to everyone using WhatsApp “in the coming weeks.”
So you’re wondering what the hell is new? First, you can now record voice messages and share them as status messages. These can be up to 30 seconds long. Next, you can update your privacy settings based on your status, so you can choose who can see (or hear) your status each time you update. As you might expect, your most recent audience selections are saved and then used as defaults for your next state.
Status Reactions allow you to respond to status updates, and are clearly one of the most popular WhatsApp features since chat reactions were introduced last year. You can quickly reply to any status by swiping up and tapping one of eight emoji. Of course, you can still reply with text, voice messages or stickers.
When your contacts share a status update, a new status ring will appear around their profile picture, and it will appear in the chat list, group participant list, and contact info sections visible in .
Finally, status now has link previews enabled, just like chat. So when you post a link on your status, the preview will automatically show up and make your status look better and let your contacts know what the link is about before they click it.
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