Edited by: TJVNews.com

As most cell phone users know, using WhatsApp for communications in a unencrypted format is essential for everyday use. At times, many find themselves exchanging messages simultaneously with both business and personal contacts.

It has now been reported that if you are an Android user, you can expect some exciting new features that were recently launched by WhatsApp. The down side to this is that those iPhone users will have to wait to access them, according to a report in the Daily Mail of the UK.

The UK newspaper reported on Thursday that the first feature allows WhatsApp users send up to 100 photos or videos at once in any given chat, compared with only 30 before. This essentially translates into a great deal of time saved for WhatsApp users as it pertains to sending large amounts of media to friends and family or whomever through the app.

An additional benefit to the new features is that Android users can also now include longer names and descriptions for group chats and even include captions when sending documents, the Daily Mail reported.

These new features arrive only two months after WhatsApp rolled out the ability for people to create personalized avatars and use them as stickers and profile photos – just like on Facebook, which is also owned by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, the paper reported. A description of the new features can be seen when users tap on WhatsApp on the Google Play Store followed by ‘What’s new’. The Daily Mail also reported that Android users may have to do a software update before the new features are available in the app.

According to a report on a web site called 91mobiles.com, the WhatsApp new features 2023 list is likely to include a screen lock for the desktop app, view once text, companion mode, PiP for video calls on iOS and more.

Meanwhile, iPhone users are already able to create avatars on WhatsApp but the other three new features are still to arrive, the Daily Mail reported.

WhatsApp’s search for messages by date feature is now available for all iPhone users, reports 91mobiles.com. This will help users to find a particular message in the long chat history. The feature allows users to find and search messages by date. In order to use this feature, make sure WhatsApp is updated 23.1.75 app version. After this, go to the chat window –> click on the profile –> tap on ‘Search’ –> the search box will appear on the chat window. To look for messages by date, select the calendar icon just above the on-screen keyboard and choose the date and month.

In order to simplify clicking images and videos, WhatsApp has revamped the inbuilt camera interface by introducing a dedicated video mode,91mobiles.com reported. Previously, users had to press and hold the camera shutter button to record a video. With the changed UI, the video option now has its own button which the users can select to record videos, just like in the case of a phone’s default camera app. The dedicated video mode is currently available on version number 2.23.2.76 for Android.

The update, called iOS 16.3.1, had to be rolled out just months after Apple released iOS 16, the Daily Mail reported.

The newest WhatsApp feature listed in App Store is personalized avatars, which was launched for both operating systems at the end of last year, according to the report.

To add an avatar, WhatsApp users just have to click ‘Settings’ (indicated by the three vertical lines) followed by ‘Avatar’. They then have to follow a series of steps for designing their avatar, by choosing hairstyle, skin tones, outfits, facial features and more. The avatars can be used as a profile picture or sent in the form of one of 36 custom stickers that reflect different emotions and actions, according to the Daily Mail report.

These show your cartoony face representing your mood with clapping, winking, thinking and flooding the chat with tears. According to Meta, the presence of avatars on WhatsApp is aimed to boost both privacy and personalization on the platform, the report indicated.

‘Sending an avatar is a fast and fun way to share feelings with friends and family,’ the company wrote in a blog post.

The virtual customizable characters are already available on Facebook and Instagram and show how Zuckerberg’s influence is increasingly changing the WhatsApp experience. The Daily Mail also reported that WhatsApp was bought by Zuckerberg’s firm in 2014 – back when Meta was known as Facebook – for about $19 billion.

It is his ambition to transform Facebook and other Meta platforms into a ‘metaverse’ – a collective virtual shared space featuring avatars of real people.