WhatsApp continues to roll out exciting innovations to its messenger, not to mention privacy-enhancing features that bring new visibility options to users. The latest release to WhatsApp for iOS is no different, bringing with it some stellar updates and a variety of new tricks that often slip under the radar.
WhatsApp version 22.1.71 is the latest version that is currently accessible for most users, sitting in the TestFlight Beta Program which is where most new features are trialed before they are rolled out en masse.
1. Design
As reported by the folks over at WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is boosting its chat list page with a cleaner design. The long-standing "Broadcast Lists" and "New Groups" options have been removed for a clearer list, which delivers a new entry point for “Broadcast” within the users' contact lists.
This is available when the user taps the same button “Start New Chat” at the top right. As you can see from WABetaInfo's image, the removal of the options makes the page look far less congested and more user-friendly, which is something we saw a lot of towards the tail end of 2021.
2. Mentions
Mentions, as well, will look different in this upcoming update. The current setup sees users informed about an in-app mention whenever they receive one, but it doesn't provide any contextual information around what the message contains.
Now, WhatsApp will begin to display information relating to what the message contains. This is useful as it lets users glean essential nuggets of information from a message before they open it, whereas previously users could be inclined to glaze over these notifications and potentially miss something important.
3. Customizability
More robust privacy settings last year arrived in the web and desktop version of WhatsApp following a bunch of nifty updates. Alongside this, WhatsApp increased the customizability options of the app by letting users have greater control over in-app voice messages.
The new update will reportedly build on these by furnishing users with more advanced privacy and customization controls, though WABetaInfo hasn't provided any concrete details on what we can expect from those more advanced updates. However, if we had to take a guess, we'd expect a plethora of new voice note features as these seem very popular right now on the app.
