A larger number of users access the WhatsApp instant messenger app because of its simple user interface that targets to send the messages instantly. The popularity and the increased user base is the main reason for the social media network, Facebook to acquire the messenger platform in 2014.
WhatsApp had come up with different kinds of features and updates in the recent past, especially after the acquisition of the social media platform. Moreover, the messenger platform gained more attention after the acquisition. Recently, the messenger platform is caught under various speculations regarding the new updates, features, and even the ratings.
New releases and updates
With millions of users accessing the messenger app worldwide, WhatsApp and its parent company wanted to keep growing with the trends and market demands. And this paved way for the company to release new features that will be able to satisfy the needs of the millions and billions of WhatsApp users. Within a short span of time, the app launched a bunch of new updates that makes its user interface more interactive and refreshing.
The company has released many updates from last year regarding the videos, calls, and messages. And all the features have gained positive reviews from the app users.
Zoom the video
The users were able to zoom the videos that are shared on the messenger platform. The zoom feature was earlier available only for viewing the photos, but from last year the users can use the ‘pinch to zoom’ feature to zoom in and out a video.
Another feature was also introduced in the video option that will enable the users to access the pop-up floating window so that they can pop it out separately while it is playing and at the same time the users can browse their WhatsApp messages.
Share from the cloud and sending PDF files
One of the advantages of using the WhatsApp is that the users can send millions of photos through the platform and all that was required was the internet connect, similarly they can send short videos, files. However, the users were not able to send PDF documents while some of the best online books are available in the PDF format.
But now the app was updated that allows the users to send PDF documents and files without worrying.
Controlled data connectivity
When WhatsApp app is free that lets users send photos, videos, documents and files- it requires data connectivity. Most of the users were worried about the data usage with the 3G and 4G. The app introduced a new update that helps in controlling the data usage. To use the feature, the users can select the Option tab by clicking on the three dot icon and select the ‘Settings’ option from which they have to choose the Data usage option.
From there the users can control when to auto download the media files and when not to, so the users while accessing the app with the mobile data can adjust the download option and download the files when they move to the Wi-Fi connectivity. Also, the users can see an option called the ‘low data usage’ when they use the voice call feature.
Chat messages
We are often forced to delete the chat messages because of lack of storage in the device, while we would have the starred messages that are important to us. But to keep the starred messages the app offers the users with best options.
Automatically sort the links and documents
While sharing a lot of media files and documents and links, it is quite difficult to sort the files from the large list of files. But the app has a sort feature that enables the users to sort different types of documents, photos, links, and other videos from any chat list, either from group chat or individual chat. The users should simply click on the three dot icon to select the Media option that has other tabs like the links and documents that store the relevant data in the tabs accordingly.
Share from cloud drive
This is the best platform to share photos and now has a feature that allows the users to share the media files even from the cloud drive. The users can choose their favorite photos from the online cloud drive to add the photos, so the users can either send photos from Dropbox or Google Drive apart from the photos stored in the internal storage drive.
Voice mail and Call back
The WhatsApp came up with the call back feature so that, the users can directly make a call, instead of going to the contacts tab to choose the contact. Similarly, the voicemail is another feature that helps in sending voice messages rather than texting a series of line. To send the voice mail, the user has too long press the ‘mic’ icon that appears near the chat box.
Quote your friend
The app launched the quote feature that allows the app user to quote someone’s text when they reply and the user must select a message that they wish to reply and the reply button pops up. When the user taps the reply button, they can type the text and hit the send button. The advantage of this feature is that the senders can pre-view the message before sending it to the recipient
Encrypted messages
Hell no. that’s WhatsApp influence. Yes, the instant messenger app is using the end to end encryption system that allows the user to protect the messages they send over the platform. The sender and the receiver can only read the contents of the message and it cannot be deciphered by any third parties. By establishing a security layer, the company promises its users that it will not store the contents even with the parent company or on its server.
Group invites
This particular feature is handy when the users are having a group chat. While conversing in the group, each member’s name in the group is shown in the different colored text that helps the other members to easily identify the person in the group.
The group invite feature introduced by the app allows the users to send link to the other people in the contact list to join the group simply by tagging them in it.
Emoji
The app consists of a wide variety of emojis that are available in bother genders with various professional emojis included in it. These emojis are available in both the iOs and Android devices.
GIF Support
Like other instant messenger apps, the WhatsApp also rolls out a new feature that will enable then to send GIF messages along with the regular text, photo, and video messages.
Feature that earned more criticism
When all the features that the instant messenger platform released got a positive response, this particular feature that was rolled out by the company gained more number of negative comments.
The Status update by the company was the feature that received more number of negative comments rather than the positive ones. The old status feature allowed the users only to type text messages, while the new feature allows the users to set photos, GIF and video messages in the status message and disappears after 24 hours. Also it has a reply option that allows the other users to comment on the stats updated by the user.
Interestingly, after the release of the new status feature, the average rating of the app in the Google Play store increased rapidly and ranged between 4.5 to 5 stars, while the users criticized the new feature. Though it is normal to receive negative comments, it was entirely opposite because the final result of the rating was a drastic one. Generally the average rating that the app receives in the Play Store ranges between 3.4 to 4.8, and the consistent increase to 5 star rating creates a suspicion.
Also, all the comments in the review session had the word ‘game’ mentioned in it and that is entirely not relevant to the messenger app. However it is highly uncertain that the messenger app will be involved in such lame practices.
Author: Anand Rajendran is CEO and Co-Founder of Zoplay, best PHP scripts development company located in India. Zoplay is a part of Casperon Technologies a leading social and mobile development company which is developing , leading innovative and collaborative software development teams to deliver major software applications like SCIMBO – Whatsapp Clone Script. I’m a Tech geek, Digital marketing expert, Entrepreneur, and Atheist who loves to write everything about PHP Scripts and mobile application development.
