WhatsApp to rollout new feature; Profile status to dazzle like Snapchat’s ‘Stories’ with photos, videos

Good news for all WhatsApp users! As the world’s most popular Instant messaging app is rolling out a new feature with its latest update which will allow users to post videos, photos and even GIFs on their profile status.

A brand new marketing tool by Facebook’s daughter organisation, the feature will let WhatsApp users post the ‘motion status’ on their profile which will be visible to selected friends for 24 hours before it gets disappears.

The similar feature is already available to other social networking sites such as Snapchat and Instagram. Users can also overlay their status with emojis, drawings and a caption.

It seems like WhatsApp has copied the feature from Snapchat because a similar kind of feature is already been the success mantra from Snapchat. Launched three years ago, Snapchat’s ‘Stories feature’ lets users share similar ephemeral timelines.

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Co-founder and CEO of WhatsApp, Jan Koum in a blog post said that the company is reinventing the status feature which is incidentally coinciding with WhatsApp’s 8^th anniversary on February 24.

The status feature will roll out globally on Feb 24 on both Android and iOS platform. It will also be secured by the end-to-end encryption security feature. 

How will this new status feature work?

Just like Snapchat, users can post the WhatsApp stories with the help of the in-app camera. To post the motion status, users will have to click the picture/video after which they can add text or emojis in it. As soon as users publish the story, it will be seen as new ‘status’ tab which can be visible to selected friends for a maximum of 24 hours. Users can also reply to the status.

When and how the new status feature will be available?

The first and the most basic requirement is that the users will have to update their WhatsApp application to the latest version. The update is gradual and might take time to reach all users. As announced the update will be available from Feb 24 on WhatsApp’s 8^th birthday.

Also read: WhatsApp introduces GIF search feature, expands media sharing limit from 10 to 30 items