WhatsApp remains the top choice for many users worldwide when it comes to instant messaging. While it’s great for chatting, the app has bigger ambitions than just text. Most messaging apps these days want to build a community, so they add features like stories and channels to keep users engaged and spending more time on the app. WhatsApp might be rethinking how it presents its Stories feature to users, making it easier for them to get more information at a glance.
According to a report from WABetaInfo, WhatsApp might be considering updating the status update page. A future update could introduce a redesigned interface for the status update tray. While the tray would still be at the top of the updates tab, it could have larger preview windows that make it easier to quickly go through the first story from each person without having to open any of them.
On Android, WhatsApp currently has a top bar with dedicated tabs for Communities, Chats, Updates, and Calls. Within the Updates tab, Android users who do not follow Channels currently have a vertically scrolling list for all stories, with more screen space given to names than to the story preview. If you follow Channels, you get an Instagram-esque circle indicator for stories in a horizontal scrolling list but no real previews.
The redesign would move the tabs to the bottom and give stories a horizontally scrolling list with large previews, where the focus is more on the content than on the person’s name. It would be a better experience than what is presented right now. This new preview window for stories isn’t available yet and might show up in a future version of the app.
There’s talk that the messaging giant owned by Meta is working on a feature that would automatically generate reports for accounts and channels on Android. WABetaInfo, the go-to source for WhatsApp features, said that these reports will be monthly once you turn them on. They also said that the reports will include details about your account and channel activity.
Like most updates, this one is expected to help you keep track of changes and trends by analyzing and comparing the monthly reports. In another recent WhatsApp update, web users got a useful chat lock feature. This is great news for people who use the web client to manage their WhatsApp messages, giving them some extra peace of mind.