WhatsApp appears to be hitting the headlines almost every other day, thanks to the various features it is working on. Recently, it was talked about for the View Once feature for photos and multi-device support, Now, the instant messaging app is claimed to be reportedly working on a new feature that will let users view status updates of contacts just by clicking on their profile photos.
Currently, the app has a tab dedicated to view status updates of your contacts. With the upcoming feature that is being talked about, it looks like you can view the status of your contacts right from the tab that displays the chats. This is possible as the status of a contact can be viewed by just tapping on the profile picture and selecting the option to view the contact's status update.
As per the WhatsApp tracker site WABetaInfo, the new feature that is under development was recently spotted in a code of the latest Android beta version of the app with the version number 2.21.17.5. When a user clicks on the profile picture of any of their contacts, the app will show an option asking them if they want to view the status update or the profile photo. The user can choose the option they desire. Notably, this is something similar to what we have seen with Twitter Fleets.
For now, there is no clarity regarding when this feature will be available for WhatsApp users. As of now, this feature is under development and it is yet to be rolled out even to the beta testers of WhatsApp. So, even if you have the latest beta version of WhatsApp for Android, then you will not be able to see this feature of clicking on the profile picture to view the status update of a contact.
This WhatsApp feature comes to light after the ability to transfer chats between Android and iOS. Besides this, WhatsApp is also bringing in many new features for its users. Recently, it enabled the View Once feature, which is similar to the disappearing messages feature. However, it is meant for the photos that are sent via this platform and it is available for Android beta users.