#TechBytes: 5 new features you can try on WhatsApp
What's the story
Unlike Telegram and Signal, Facebook-owned WhatsApp has been incredibly slow with feature upgrades.
The messaging service boasts over a billion users but takes months to test every new feature before making it public.
However, in the recent stable releases, the company has pushed some interesting capabilities to keep its users engaged.
Let's take a quick look at them.
Feature #1
Call waiting for WhatsApp voice calls
In order to enable more seamless calling, WhatsApp has introduced a call waiting feature.
The capability, as the name suggests, gives a person, who is busy with one call, an option to attend another one.
Previously, the second call used to get rejected, but this feature shows the recipient an option to decline the second call or accept it while ending the ongoing one.
Feature #2
Hide muted posts from Status tab
Along with call waiting, WhatsApp has also released the ability to keep muted statuses out of the view of users.
Previously, the service used to display a faded version of muted statuses at the bottom of its Status tab.
However, with the new feature, it will simply hide those posts from the list and provide a button to access them if needed.
Feature #3
Controls to manage who can add you into WhatsApp groups
WhatsApp's recent releases have expanded group privacy controls to more and more people.
The feature, available through settings, allows a user to choose who can add them to groups.
You can try it by going to Account > Privacy > Groups in the settings menu and selecting an option from 'Everyone', 'My Contacts', or 'My Contacts Except' depending on your need.
Feature #4
Fingerprint lock to keep your chats secure
Last month, after the Pegasus spyware case, WhatsApp released the much-awaited fingerprint authentication feature to let Android users lock the messaging app with their fingerprint and block any possibility of unauthorized access.
To enable the capability, you can go to Settings > Account > Privacy > Fingerprint Lock and select the time frame after which the app should be automatically locked.
Feature #5
Finally, it is the dark mode
While WhatsApp hasn't officially made Dark Mode available, the feature can be used on the stable version of the app.
For this, you need to enable a particular flag in the messaging service. Here are the steps: https://bit.ly/2PVbq8a.
Then, it will show a new Theme option in settings, letting you flip the dark mode on manually.