New Shortcuts and Features Arriving to WhatsApp

Currently, WhatsApp is testing some interesting new features that might be arriving to our phones sooner than we expect. There have been lots of rumors in the recent years about the messaging app working on an “unsend” option for messages. This would be great, since it allows you to delete the messages you already sent. As such, it seems that the company is testing the feature inside the new beta release for the Web version of the messaging app, according to @WABetaInfo. Apparently, this would offer you 5 minutes in which you can revoke the message you sent.

New Shortcuts

Besides this particularly exciting feature, the developers are also bringing new shortcuts useful for formatting text. At the moment, you do have a brief range of commands if you want to format your messages. For example, if you want to make a piece of text bold, you need to place it between asterisks. In order to italicize it, you have to put it between two underscores, and if you want it strikethrough, just use tildes before and after.

Now, instead of making you memorize all these commands, the developers are working on a test version that would show all the options for formatting messages. The options would appear when you select part of a text by tapping and holding it down.

It seems that the tests provide positive feedback, WhatsApp is going to include all the features for the users in their future updates. The app has been roughly criticized last month by the Home Secretary Amber Rudd, after the Westminster attacks. The Home Secretary was dissatisfied with the end-to-end encryption the app uses in order to protect their users’ privacy. According to her, this helped terrorists plan the attacks. Moreover, there is already an ongoing debate about the privacy issues with WhatsApp and Facebook.