In a clear showing of Meta’s (previously known as Facebook) focus on growing WhatsApp as a platform for businesses, much like Slack, the social platform rolled out new features in May, including emoji reactions, updates file sharing quotes and new rules for group chats.
WhatsApp new features: Here’s what’s new in May 2022
The Meta-owned chat app launched a slew of new features on 5 May 2022, a move that’s in line with its “vision for Communities on WhatsApp.”
“The feedback we’ve received so far has been very positive and we can’t wait to get many new features into people’s hands,” the app noted in its most recent blog post.
Users with the latest version of WhatsApp have access to these new features:
Emoji reactions
Tailored specifically for groups, users can now use emoji reactions to enhance the communication experience in chats. Gone are the days where you had to literally post an emoji. A simple press and hold (on iOS) on the chat bubble will bring up a menu of options, and right at the top, users can choose their preferred emoji and this is how it will look:
Increases on file sharing
Before May’s update, users could share files but only up to 100MB at a time. Well, that’s in the past now. WhatsApp allows users to share files up to 2G at a time, “protected by end-to-end encryption.”
“This is an increase from the previous limit of 100MB and we think will be helpful for collaboration among small businesses and school groups,” the chat app explained.
Maximum participants in groups boosted
The third feature available on the updated version of WhatsApp is pretty handy for virtual workspaces. In direct competition with the likes of Slack, WhatsApp now allows up to 512 participants in groups.
Moreover, according to engadget.com, the Meta-owned chat app is testing a feature that will allow participants to exit groups without notifying the group.