Update
Payment feature is now rolling out on a large scale. Make sure your app is up-to-date.
Then open WhatsApp and tap on the three vertical dots (⁝) at the top-right corner. There you’ll see ‘Payments’ option. Here you can UPI as a payment method to start sending & receiving money via WhatsApp.
Disappearing Messages feature is now available for most of the users who have the latest version installed.
_________________________
New features, Disappearing Messages and WhatsApp Payment, might not be available in your WhatsApp yet because it’s rolling out to 20 million users first and then it will be rolled out for more users gradually. We’ll update this page once it’s widely available. Stay tuned!
Globally, WhatsApp is the third most popular social media platform, with over 2 billion users. In the race of social media platforms to provide better usability to its users, every app updates its features every-now and then. Recently WhatsApp also has launched some new features, like Disappearing messages and Payment through WhatsApp.
Disappearing Messages
Recently, WhatsApp launches the feature of the self-destructing message to its app. The feature can be facilitative for users to clear everlasting chat congestions, let it be text messages, images or videos once they have served their purposes. According to the Twitter post of the WhatsApp, ‘Because not all messages need to stick around forever’.
In a blog of its official website, WhatsApp explained about the disappearing messages, stating that ‘Our goal is make conversations on WhatsApp feel as close to in-person as possible, which means they shouldn’t have to stick around forever’.
Below is the listed experience that the user will have by turning ON the disappearing feature on WhatsApp:
- This feature does not enable every chat under one umbrella. User has to Turn On the disappearing messages for every conversation he/she wants to. Further, for group chats, the control of this feature is only accessible by the admin only.
- It will offer the user the seven days window that means any messages on that particular chat will stay for seven days and then will be deleted after seven days.
- If this feature is turned ON and in seven days, a user does not open WhatsApp; the message will self-destruct itself.
- However, in the notifications, the preview of those messages will be visible until the WhatsApp is opened.
- When a disappearing message is replied with quoted text, the quoted text will remain in the chat even after the seven days.
- The message won’t disappear if it is forwarded to the chat with this feature OFF.
- On the creation of the backup, the disappearing messages will be included in it, but once the user restores the backup, the disappeared message will vanish.
Payment through WhatsApp
WhatsApp has gained its popularity over the years because of its usability features which makes it easy and accessible to everybody without any ruffle. Payments feature is available for both Android and iOS devices.
The WhatsApp has partnered with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) using the Unified Payment Interface (UPI).
WhatsApp is working with the country’s five leading banks: ICICI, HDFC, SBI, Axis and Jio Payment Bank to initiate the money transaction via UPI between a sender and receiver bank accounts.
A set of strong security and privacy is implemented to the payment design, like entering UPI pin for each payment, just like every feature in WhatsApp.
Always Mute Feature
Are you a part of some chat group and unwanted notifications disturbs you, well WhatsApp has brought a new feature – Always Mute. On enabling this feature, WhatsApp offers you ‘Always’ option replacing the ‘one-year’ option. This new feature is available in Android, iOS along with the WhatsApp web.
Better Storage Management
WhatsApp redefined storage management to dislodge the junk messages. With this feature, WhatsApp users can quickly classify and bulk delete extraneous files that are repeatedly shared to free up storage capacity on their mobiles. This feature also offers various clean-up suggestions to its users around the globe.
We’ve made it easy to review, bulk delete items and free up space. This new storage management tool can be found in Settings > Storage and Data > Manage Storage. pic.twitter.com/eIMFZ1Oyzr
— WhatsApp Inc. (@WhatsApp) November 3, 2020
Open WhatsApp > Settings > Storage and Data > Manage Storage
You can also delete media files chat wise. The list of chats is sorted from large to small size so that you can easily identify which chats are taking more space on your device. You can also use search button to look for a specific contact name or group.
The file will be deleted from WhatsApp media but it may still be available on your device.
Conclusion
The WhatsApp is regularly releasing many helpful features like dark mode and organised search to justify and continue its popularity. With over 400 million users, India has become the leading market for this App, and the initiatives like payment through WhatsApp are aiding to digital India.
Stay tuned to our page, because we’ll be bringing more such latest updates soon.
