The WhatsApp team continues to fine-tune and improve its messaging platform to satisfy its millions of users worldwide. The latest changes? They've significantly enhanced voice notes and how videos are displayed . We'll explain what these changes entail and how you'll see them on your phone.
Improved voice messages and videos in WhatsApp
WhatsApp is far from being the perfect communication platform, but it is undoubtedly the most popular instant messaging service in many countries around the world. That's why so many of us are always on the lookout for new features and changes that affect the app and, therefore, offer us new tools for our chats.
The person responsible for revealing these improvements has been, of course, WABetainfo, which has published both on its Twitter account and on its website the new features that will arrive related to voice notes and video viewing.
? WhatsApp beta for Android 2.19.86: what's new?
– WhatsApp is rolling out the consecutive voice messages feature! (ENABLED)
– Great improvements for the Picture in Picture feature! Check out the article to discover it (AVAILABLE IN FUTURE)https://t.co/6wFp9pAtGq— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) March 28, 2019
Regarding the first point, we're talking about consecutive voice messages. This means that when someone sends you several voice notes in a row— yes, that nightmare !—they'll play one after the other without you having to press the play button on each note individually. You just tap on the first one, and that's it. It might seem trivial, but if you receive several audio messages in a row, it's a pretty convenient feature. Consecutive voice notes appeared in WhatsApp beta version 2.19.86 for Android , so it shouldn't be long before it arrives as an official update for everyone—those who are part of the beta program should already be testing it.
What's not yet available, even for testing, but has nonetheless been revealed, is the improved Picture-in-Picture video playback . Until now, if you watched a YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram video within the app, you could view it in a floating window, but you couldn't switch to the chat without first closing that playback window. WhatsApp has finally fixed this, so you can not only switch to another conversation without the video closing, but you can even continue watching it even if WhatsApp is running in the background (i.e., open on the screen), as shown in the image below.
As we mentioned, this feature is currently under development , so it's not even accessible through the beta versions. We'll have to wait until it appears there first to confirm its arrival, and then until the platform announces an official update date. We'll have to be patient.