WhatsApp is rolling out new Chat Filters to make it easier to find the messages you are looking for and reduce the need to scroll through your inbox. The following three new filters appear at the top of the app's main conversation list: All, Unread, and Groups. In a blog post, WhatsApp describes them like so: All: The default view of all your messages. Unread: Perfect for when you want to see which conversations you need to catch up on or respond to. It shows messages that are either marked by you as unread or haven’t been opened yet, so you can prioritize your responses. Groups: A highly requested feature, now all your group chats will be organized in one…

WhatsApp has added new text formatting options to the chat platform, enabling users to message each other everything from grocery lists to step-by-step instructions in mid-conversation. Following Wednesday's update, WhatsApp users can now use bulleted and numbered lists, block quotes, and inline code to communicate more effectively. The new formatting options join the existing bold, italic, strikethrough, and monospaced formats that have been available to WhatsApp users for a while now. How to Use New WhatsApp Text Formatting Options Bulleted list: Start a new line with a - (dash) symbol, followed by a space. Numbered list: Start a new line with 1 or 2 digits, followed by a period and a space. Block quote: Start a new line with the…

As part of its compliance with the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) legislation, WhatsApp is putting the final touches to introducing platform interoperability with other encrypted messaging apps. In September, EU lawmakers designated WhatsApp parent company Meta as one of six so-called "gatekeepers," along with Google, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, and Microsoft, giving them six months to begin opening up their core platform services to others. The DMA comes into full effect in March 2024. That leaves just a few weeks for WhatsApp and others to bring their services into compliance. However, Wired reports that WhatsApp has actually been working on interoperability for the past two years, and its work is only partially motivated by the looming DMA. According to Dick…

WhatsApp is rolling out a new option that lets users on iPhone share photos and video over the messaging platform in their original quality. As spotted by WABetaInfo, the official changelog included with WhatsApp's 23.24.73 update on the App Store says that users can now "easily send original quality media as a file." The update follows a recent feature addition that lets WhatsApp users send media in high resolution or "HD quality." While that was an improvement that addressed the service's low quality media sharing limitation, it still involves compression. WhatsApp's latest feature avoids compression altogether by allowing photos and video to be shared as files, thereby preserving their original quality. WhatsApp's changelog adds that the new option is rolling…

WhatsApp has started allowing users to authenticate their account on a device with an email address as an alternative to using a phone number, for times when cellular coverage is poor. The new option to link an account to an email address does not replace SMS verification via a six-pin code, and opening a WhatsApp account still requires the user to provide a number. But with email verification, existing users now also have the means to authenticate their account on a device even in areas where cellular signal is non-existent. Spotted by WABetaInfo, the new feature is rolling out today as part of version 23.24.70 of WhatsApp for iPhone in the App Store. To use email verification in the updated…

WhatsApp is rolling out a new voice chats feature in groups that lets users start voice calls without disturbing everyone in the group. Previously in WhatsApp group chats, the only option was to start a voice call, which rings every member in the group. If no-one joins, the call doesn't go ahead. In contrast, voice chats can be initiated in a group without anyone joining, and users are prompted to join discreetly via a silent push notification. The feature is available for those WhatsApp groups with 33 to 128 members. Group members not participating in the voice chat can see who is active in the call from the chat header and the Calls tab, and people can join or leave…