WhatsApp adds notification panel image previews for Android Pie
What's the story
With Android Pie finally out, Google has introduced a new notification style called MessagingStyle with support for inline photo previews and stickers. Over the past couple of days, WhatsApp has implemented this feature in its beta, and is currently testing it. Long story short, soon, you'll be able to see image previews for photos sent on WhatsApp from your notification panel itself. Here's more.
The feature
Details about the new feature
While earlier, WhatsApp used to show small icons on the notification panel to indicate whether a photo, GIF, or video had been received, Android Pie users will now be able to expand the notification to preview the photo. When the notification is collapsed, a mini-preview appears to the right of the notification. Currently, only previews for still photos are supported. GIFs, videos, are not.
Caveats
The feature is only available for Android Pie
First spotted by Android Police, the new feature is available on WhatsApp beta version 2.18.291. However, it's worth noting that the feature will only work on phones running Android Pie. This essentially means that people running older Android versions, including Oreo, won't be able to view the feature in the beta, or even after a stable release.