Earlier this month, WhatsApp, the instant messaging platform owned by Meta, finally rolled out the option for users to transfer their chat history from Android to iPhone. Last year, WhatsApp had rolled out a similar feature for iOS users to move their chat history to Android.
In a Facebook post on 14 June, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote: “We're adding to WhatsApp the ability to securely switch between phones and transfer your chat history, photos, videos, and voice messages between Android and iPhone while maintaining end-to-end encryption. This is a top requested feature…”
According to a report on The Verge, the transfer process only works on new or factory reset iPhones and makes use of Apple’s existing Move to iOS app for Android. This handy feature, however, is not the only latest update on the app, which is used by millions of users worldwide.
Some new features for group calls on @WhatsApp: You can now mute or message specific people on a call (great if someone forgets to mute themselves!), and we've added a helpful indicator so you can more easily see when more people join large calls. pic.twitter.com/fxAUCAzrsy
— Will Cathcart (@wcathcart) June 16, 2022
Mute people on group calls
Doesn’t it get annoying when you cannot pay attention during an important group call because someone else forgot to mute their microphone? WhatsApp now lets users mute or message specific people on a group call. “During the call, participants will also see a banner or an indicator suggesting a person has joined the call offscreen, which WhatsApp states will be beneficial during large meetings,” a report on Android Central explains.
This adds to the list of other useful features that WhatsApp has introduced to ‘Group Calls’. Earlier this year, the platform had also increased the number of people who can join a voice call from 8 to 32.
🔒 To further protect your privacy online, we’re rolling out new options to your privacy control settings 🔒
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) June 15, 2022
Now you can select who from your contact list can see your Profile Photo, About, and Last Seen status. For more information follow this link: https://t.co/UGMCx2n70h
Hide your profile picture, last seen status
A user’s privacy and safety & security on WhatsApp have been a big point of discussion in recent times. On 16 June, the platform announced more new options in its privacy control settings. You can now select who from your contact list can see your profile photo, the ‘about’ section, and ‘last seen’ status among other things. On Android, for example, you can toggle these privacy settings by hitting the three dots (the more options section). Go to ‘Account’, and then ‘Privacy’. This feature can also be accessed on iOS, desktop and KaiOS.
Reactions
This one’s a slightly older, but useful feature that some users are still getting to know about. In case you missed it, earlier this year, WhatsApp also rolled out the ‘emoji reaction’ feature. You can now press and hold a message in a chat and choose any one of six emojis to react to that message. The six emojis currently available include thumbs up, heart, the laughing emoji, the shocked emoji, the sad with a teardrop emoji and the prayer emoji (often confused by many as a high-five).
Also read: WhatsApp banned over 1.75 million Indian accounts in November
