In an effort to improve user control and increase privacy, WhatsApp has unveiled a number of new updates to its messaging service.
The new changes at the messaging service, which is owned by Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc., contains these new features: the ability to lock your application and individual chats, editing your messages, video screen share during video calls and making video messages in chats.
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1. Fingerprint lock your WhatsApp and individual Chats
Users can now enable the feature to lock their WhatsApp without using a third-party application as before to secure their privacy.
What is even better is the ability to now lock individual chats so that even if you do not lock the app, you can easily lock and hide some individual chats from others.
a. To enable the WhatsApp lock;
- Select the three dots that appear at the top-right of your phone and choose settings.
- Go to ‘Privacy‘ and scroll down to the last menu item ‘Fingerprint lock‘
- To enable, touch your fingerprint sensor on your phone.
- Activate the ‘unlock with fingerprint‘ feature and choose the time interval when the app should automatically lock.
After activation, close the app and open it again, you will see the above screen asking you to touch your fingerprint scanner on your phone to unlock.
To enable the WhatsApp lock on individual chats;
- Navigate to the WhatsApp info of the particular individual chat.
- Scroll down and select ‘chat lock‘
- Enable the lock chat with fingerprint feature.
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2. Edit Your Message
Any message you send can be edited up to 15 minutes after you send it, and the update will be visible to everyone in the chat. The word “edited” will appear next to the timestamp for altered messages.
The notice “This message was edited for everyone in this chat on the latest version of WhatsApp” will appear if you aren’t using the most recent version of WhatsApp. To view modified messages, update your app.
To edit your message:
- Long press the message you want to edit, then tap “More options“
- Choose Edit and update your message
- When you’re done, tap the check mark to update your message.
- NB: There is only 15 minutes available for editing messages. You can’t also edit photos, videos, or other types of media or captions.
3. WhatsApp Video Message
Those familiar with telegram will be already familiar of this feature already since it has long been available on that platform.
The video message feature is now available on WhatsApp. It works just live the voice note but now, it includes videos!
To use this feature, just click on the voice note button to change the button to a video logo.
4. Video Screen Sharing on Video Calls
Most users are aware that this feature was only available for Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. However, WhatsApp is now adding this feature to its platform.
Users can now share their screens with friends or business colleagues if they are giving a presentation thanks to this new feature.
5. Participants can Add members to a Group
When enabled, existing members in a particular group can add members to the group even if they are not admins.
However, only group admins can activate this feature for your group. So. if you do not see this feature in your group, prompt the admin. This even makes their work easier.
Admins can also in turn verify before admitting these new members into the group by enabling the ‘Approve new participants‘ feature.
Admins can activate these features by navigating to the ‘group settings‘.
