WhatsApp has reportedly confirmed the arrival of at least three new features to the platform. WABetaInfo site that digs into the newest versions of the app in search of the hidden features has this time received confirmation of some new features directly from the company itself. According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp head Will Cathcart and Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg joined a WhatsApp chat with him and confirmed some upcoming features.
The top executives first acknowledged the work of WABetaInfo and thanked the person behind this site who continuously reveals new features of the app. The tech site has shared the screenshots of their chats as well so to tell us that the conversation is legit.
Reportedly, Zuckerberg revealed that WhatsApp’s parent company is working on rolling out more disappearing message features. As per the screenshot, the first feature is “Disappearing mode” which will turn on disappearing messages in any chat thread. Currently, the users can set the Disappearing messages feature separately for every individual chat. But, a mode will simply enable for every chat thread you do on WhatsApp.
The second feature reportedly confirmed by Zuckerberg is “View once.” As the name implies, the content of the message will disappear as soon as the recipient sees it. This appears something similar to Snapchat that vanishes the messages as soon as the recipient opens the chat thread.
According to Zuckerberg, the view once feature will make WhatApp messages even more private and secure. He reportedly added, “I’m excited to get this out to everyone soon.”
Also, upon asking if multi-device support is finally coming, Zuckerberg replied yes, “that’s coming too.” This means when available, users will be able to use their WhatsApp account on multiple devices even without an active internet connection on the main device.
Zuckerberg reportedly further said,
“It’s been a big technical challenge to get all your messages and content to sync properly across devices even when your phone battery dies.”
Cathcart further confirmed that up to 4 devices can be linked in a multi-device support feature. The multi-device support has been in the reports for so long now. WABetaInfo has previously found this feature inside the beta builds of the app many times. But the company never enabled it.
Interestingly, WABetaInfo also managed to take an idea on the development of an iPad app, on which, Cathcart replied, “we’d love to support WhatsApp on iPad! Getting multi-device right will make it possible for us to build things like that.”
While the two top executives confirmed the three features, they didn’t reveal when to expect them onboard. However, according to WhatsApp’s head, the multi-device support is coming in the next month or two via public beta first.