Popular online messaging application, WhatsApp, reached 1 Billion active users this year and since then has been drilling down into making the application a lot more interesting. Now that the app is free to use in India, it makes sense to prefer it over other similar applications like Hike and Viber.
As per Phone Radar, WhatsApp is expected to add three new features – Callback, Voicemail and Zip File sharing to the application. This is in addition to end-to-end message encryption, rich text chats, PDF sharing and cloud storage integration it introduced this year to its global users.
This also makes WhatsApp one of the most active in the industry to release a slew of releases with a couple of new features every time. It is also quite possible that Facebook is trying to improve the features of WhatsApp, while still keeping it distinct from Messenger.
Details about the features
The call back feature will be available for both iOS and Android and will be similar to a call back feature on a smartphone. There will be a call back button along with the missed call notification itself, which can be pressed without having to open the application.
The voicemail feature will work in the same fashion it works for mobile operators. Although voicemail is not a very popular feature in India, having it on an application can be beneficial to the WhatsApp-generation. Possibly only available to iOS users, there will be two buttons, ‘Record voicemail’ and ‘Send voicemail’.
The feature seems a little redundant considering you can send voice notes to your contacts on WhatsApp, adding a similar feature to the call service might not pick up pace initially. However, these two buttons will be shown during call, which means it will give access to in-call audio.
Lastly, WhatsApp is going to add zipped files sharing feature on the app, which was earlier restricted to documents and PDFs. There will also be options to compress the files and send them to your contacts, which will allow you to send larger files or save data.
What do we really want from WhatsApp?
We understand that WhatsApp and Facebook are working super close together to make it at par with Messenger, but distinct enough to have a USP. Being the first in the industry has given an edge to the messaging platform, but how long can one hold on to that?
File sharing was really important and WhatsApp seems to have improved on that feature. Having voicemail and callback features are not something users have been looking forward to eagerly.
What we really want from WhatsApp is to add the following –
- Video calling feature – Now there are reports stating that this is going to happen soon but we have been hearing only rumours. Other services have rolled this out long time back, making them an overall attractive package.
- Multiple users in a call – Why hasn’t WhatsApp added this already? Right now you can call only one contact at a time and cannot have a conference call. It gets annoying when you see that Facebook Messenger has already rolled out this feature.
- Sending money to contacts – WhatsApp is so widely used, that it can possibly roll out country specific cash transfer features, which integrate mobile wallets. There is already end-to-end encryption on the platform, which can be taken advantage of for exchange of money across contacts.
With the speed WhatsApp has been releasing updates, we might get to see some of these by the end of this year. Let’s see if Facebook realises the importance of these features before other platforms take over.
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