Facebook Inc’s FB mobile messaging platform WhatsApp is preparing to launch disappearing messages on Apple Inc’s AAPL iPhones and is giving its chat bubbles a new look.
What Happened: WhatsApp has released version 2.21.200.11 update for its beta users, which brings larger, more round, and more colorful chat bubbles into vogue, 9to5Mac reported, citing an update from WABetaInfo, an independent WhatsApp news portal.
The messaging platform owned by the Mark Zuckerberg-led company is also rolling out tools to manage disappearing messages, which according to WABetaInfo, lets users manage durations ranging from 24 hours to 90 days.
“For more privacy and storage, all new messages will disappear from this chat for everyone after the selected duration. Anyone in the chat can change this setting,” WhatsApp describes the feature as in the “Disappearing Messages” settings pane shared by WABetaInfo.
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WhatsApp would allow users to enable “Default Message Timer” within Privacy Settings, which in turn is said to allow new chats to start with disappearing messages options enabled for the chosen duration.
Why It Matters: It will not take long for WhatsApp to start rolling out these new features to users as they are currently in beta, noted 9to5Mac.
WhatsApp beta for Android, the mobile operating system made by Alphabet Inc GOOGL GOOG subsidiary Google, will receive support for these new features next week, as per WABetaInfo.
Last month, it was reported that WhatsApp was testing a feature in Brazil that allows users to search for businesses.
WhatsApp has been at the center of a controversy surrounding its privacy policy this year, which led to an increased interest in privacy-centric applications such as Signal and Telegram.
Price Action: On Friday, Facebook shares closed 1.07% higher at $343.01 in the regular session. On the same day, Apple shares ended the regular session 0.81% higher at $142.65.
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