Meta has faced stiff competition in the instant messaging space as of late. Despite the popularity of WhatsApp, itsencrypted messenger, the company continues to face pressure to evolve. As competitors add new features to their own apps, Meta has been forced to rise to the occasion. For example, Signal — an instant messaging app that also features end-to-end encryption —rolled out standard text formatting optionslike bold and italics for its users in 2023, a feature WhatsApp had addedback in 2016. Now, Meta is taking the next step forward by adding advanced formatting options.
WhatsApp text formatting picks up bullets, quotes, code, and more
Say it how you mean it in the latest Android beta
Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Meta, has announced on WhatsApp that advanced text formatting will be officially rolling out to its users (viaWABetaInfo/Twitter). In his update, Zuckerberg showed how text can now be formatted as a bulleted list, numbered list, block quotes, and inline code.
The changes come in addition to the ability to add bold, italic, strikethrough, or monospace effects to text, which were included in previous updates. Several of the new additions will be particularly helpful to coders who rely on WhatsApp for communication, while others will be more useful for casual communications. A timeline was not provided detailing when all WhatsApp users could expect to see the changes on their devices. Presumably, it will be reflected in the next update of the app, but keep an eye out when a new version becomes available.
Previously, Meta had been spotted trialing text formatting options within a beta version of WhatsApp. In Android version 2.24.2.9, code blocks were seen, as well as lists and quote blocks. However, it was unclear at the time if this feature was being tested specifically to meet the needs of coders. Additionally, there were no details confirming whether these would be the only text formatting options — if they were to roll out at all.
Before this testing was seen in version 2.24.2.9 of WhatsApp beta for Android, Meta had already beentrialing the same advanced text formatting for WhatsAppon desktop. It was assumed that the company would eventually make it a priority to bring it to the mobile app, too. However, it would be months before it even started piloting the feature for Android. Now that Zuckerberg has spoken, this is one matter of speculation that can finally be put to rest.
