Get ready for a significant upgrade to your WhatsApp experience! The popular messaging app has just unveiled a host of exciting new features designed to make your chats more vibrant and personalized. Among the biggest announcements are expanded support for Live Photos, creative chat themes powered by Meta AI, brand-new sticker packs, and improved functionality for Android users, including document scanning and simplified group searches.
What’s New in WhatsApp?
One of the most anticipated additions is the ability to share Live Photos. If you’re an iPhone user, you can now send and receive Live Photos, complete with their accompanying sound and short video clips. Android users can enjoy a similar experience with Motion Photos, ensuring everyone can share those lively, brief moments directly within their conversations.
For those unfamiliar, Live Photos are essentially brief video snippets that capture a few seconds before and after you press the shutter button. This brings your memories to life beyond a static image, and now, it’s fully supported across both major mobile platforms.
Personalization is also getting a big boost thanks to Meta AI. You can now unleash your creativity to design unique chat themes. Simply provide Meta AI with text prompts or messages, and watch as it generates custom images to adorn your conversations. This AI magic extends to video calls too, allowing you to create dynamic backgrounds to make your calls more engaging. You can even add AI-generated backgrounds when capturing photos and videos directly within your chats.
However, it’s worth noting that Meta AI features and related experiences are currently available in select countries and support a range of languages, including English, Arabic, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese.
The update also introduces fresh sticker packs like “Fearless Bird,” “School Days,” and “Vacation,” offering new ways to express yourself without words. Finding your group chats is also becoming a breeze. If you can’t recall a group’s name, WhatsApp now lets you search for it by simply looking up someone you know is part of that conversation, displaying common groups instantly.
Finally, Android users can rejoice as document scanning functionality is officially rolling out. This handy feature, previously exclusive to iOS, allows you to scan, crop, save, and send documents directly through the messaging app, streamlining your workflow right from your phone.