WhatsApp is working on a birthday reminder feature that notifies users when a contact's birthday is coming up. It will introduce a dedicated section where all upcoming birthdays appear in one place. The update will use the birthday information already saved in the user's phone address book.
| Key points | Details |
|---|---|
| Feature: | Birthday reminders |
| Feature availability: | Some features may be under development, so they are not available to beta testers. Others may become available to users over time. If you're unable to access a certain feature, you will need to wait for a future update. |
| News shared last week: | WhatsApp launches username reservation update |
| Previous article: | WhatsApp is testing a feature to pin channel updates on iOS! |
Weekly WhatsApp beta updates: new features and improvements
This new weekly roundup brings together all the latest updates about WhatsApp beta shared this week. As a result, you can finally catch up on everything you might have missed from our past announcements. You can consider this summary as a way to keep up new features, improvements, and fixes. This week's highlight focuses on birthday notifications, a feature that will remind users when one of their contacts is celebrating a birthday. See what else has been announced this week.
WhatsApp is developing birthday notifications for contacts
WhatsApp is developing a feature that will notify users whether one of their contacts has a birthday. The feature will introduce a dedicated section within the app where users can see upcoming birthdays at a glance. When a contact's birthday arrives, WhatsApp shows an alert to remind the user. The reminder relies on the birthday information already saved in the user's phone address book for that contact. If a contact's birthday is not saved in the address book, the reminder won't appear.
Privacy regarding the birthday notification feature
Since the app reads the birthday data from the user's own address book, WhatsApp does not need to introduce any privacy controls for this feature. The user is the one who decides whether to save a contact's birthday. If you don't want WhatsApp to remind you about a specific contact's birthday, you simply don't need to save their date of birth in your address book.
WhatsApp brings new features to Wear OS
WhatsApp is introducing new features to manage chats on Wear OS. With this update, WhatsApp now lets users mark their conversations as read or unread directly from the watch. In addition, users can now pin and mute their chats without relying on their phone. These new actions close that gap and make the Wear OS app feel more independent.
WhatsApp refreshes the group chat info interface on iOS
With the latest iOS updates, WhatsApp is improving the group info interface. The new interface introduces three new tabs to improve navigation. This makes it easier for users to find the right option without scrolling through the interface. Additionally, the page now includes a dedicated screen for other preferences and privacy-related features. These changes turn the group chat info screen into a structured interface that makes it easier to navigate.
WhatsApp is rolling out notifications for pinned messages
In the past, users could know that someone pinned a message by opening the conversation where the message was pinned. But now, WhatsApp sends a notification when someone pins a message in a chat or group. With the notification for pinned messages, users know right away when a message was pinned at the top of the conversation without opening it. However, WhatsApp does not send notifications whether users pin a message in a muted chat or group.
WhatsApp to release a feature to pin channel updates on iOS
WhatsApp is working on introducing pinned updates in channels. With this feature, channel admins can easily show an important update at the top of the channel interface. This way, channel followers can easily notice it, regardless of how many new updates the admin shared after it. However, WhatsApp sets a 30-day limit on pinned channel updates. This means that channel admins cannot choose a different duration for pinning their updates.
Channel admins can label their updates as paid partnerships
Users on WhatsApp beta for Android and iOS can now mark their channel updates as paid partnership. If you're a channel admin, you can apply the label to let your followers know that you shared the content for commercial purposes. The label works the same way on Android, iOS, Web, and Desktop apps, so every follower sees the same disclosure. If channel admins don't disclose a paid partnership, they may face fines or other sanctions.
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