While WhatsApp comfortably ranks among thetop messaging appsaround, high-quality media sharing hasn’t been its strongest suit. For years, people have been limited to sending compressed images and videos on the app. However, that changed this August with support forsharing high-resolution imagesarriving first,followed by videosjust days later. This option could soon extend to the status page as well, based on the app’s latest beta for Android.
Thanks to some digging around byWABetaInfo, we’ve learned that version2.23.26.3of WhatsApp beta features anHDicon on top of the editor page for status updates. Despite high-res image and video sharing arriving for individual and group chats a few months ago, users were unable to broadcast HD media as their status. Human ingenuity meant that people discovered workarounds, like sending high-res media to a private chat and then forwarding it to the status hub. But as the publication notes, even this method wasn’t always reliable.
As with the previous implementation of high-resolution media sharing, tapping the HD icon on top should let you switch between standard and HD quality. It’s still unclear if viewers will see an HD icon on the status itself to highlight the image or video’s quality, though this is how HD media sharing is currently handled within private and group chats.
The not-so-good news here is that the feature doesn’t appear to be ready for beta testers yet, suggesting that there’s still a while to go before it’s widely available. But unlikesome of the minor featuresthat WhatsApp routinely drops on the beta channel, this particular addition would no doubt be higher up on the list of priorities for the Meta-owned chat app.
It’s been a busy last few months for WhatsApp as developers continue to test out new additions to the chat app. One that sticks out is the upcoming ability torepost or share a WhatsApp status on Instagram. Users can already share their WhatsApp status updates through Facebook Stories, so this integration with another Meta product was always on the cards.
WhatsApp has recently picked up a couple of updates on the stable channel, too, letting practically everybody get in on the action. This includes the arrival of a newsticker packstyled around2023 Spotify Wrapped, enabling people to share their annual playlist with contacts and even Channels (admins only).
Also in the past week, WhatsApp launched asecret code functionality for Chat Lock, offering an additional layer of security for sensitive chats. The same update also lets users lock chats directly from the list of conversations rather than navigating to theChat infopage each time.
