WhatsApp beta for Android 2.22.18.12: what's new?
WhatsApp is rolling out a new update through the Google Play Beta Program, bringing the version up to 2.22.18.12.
What's new in this update? WhatsApp is working on managing the phone number visibility when starting a chat with certain businesses, for a future update of the app!
| Common questions | Answers |
|---|---|
| Name of the feature? | Phone number sharing |
| Status? | Under development |
| Availability? | WhatsApp is working on the ability to manage the phone number visibility to certain businesses for a future update. |
| I've installed this update but I don't have this feature. Why? | This feature is under development so it is not ready to be released to beta testers, but you can discover further information about the feature in this article. |
| Previous news? | WhatsApp beta for Android 2.22.18.10: what's new? WhatsApp keeps working on improvements to inform group participants about the group membership approval system! |
PHONE NUMBER SHARING
In the article about the WhatsApp beta for Android 2.22.17.23 update, we published a screenshot about a phone number sharing option right within a sub-group of a community. Thanks to this feature, users will be able to share their phone number with a certain sub-group of a community they are part of, since their phone number is always hidden by default after joining a community.
We explained that the ability to manage the phone number visibility was only limited to communities and their sub-groups but we have additional news to share with you today:
As you can see in this screenshot, WhatsApp is planning to ask to users if they want to share their phone number when starting a chat with businesses in some situations. In some cases, WhatsApp will automatically hide the customer's phone number when they send a message to businesses via Click to WhatsApp ad, but beware: not all interactions with a WhatsApp ad will be eligible for hiding the phone number, so we need to wait for another update or official information by WhatsApp to discover how this works.
When contacting a certain business and the phone number is hidden in that specific case, as happens with the phone number sharing option for sub-groups of a community, customers will be able to choose to share the phone number with them.
Unfortunately, this feature is under development so it is not clear when WhatsApp plans to release it to beta testers. As usual, there will be another post on this website when we have further information to share with you.
Follow WABetaInfo on Twitter to always be up to date about WhatsApp news, and you can discover all other changes implemented on WhatsApp beta for Android, iOS, Web/Desktop, and Windows!
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