WhatsApp posts their first ‘status’ update; introduces disappearing statuses

WhatsApp has posted the first series of ‘Status’ updates on the revamped status feature that the company is working on. We previously reported approximately 3.5 months back about WhatsApp working on this disappearing status interface in addition to the company trying to test the WhatsApp broadcast list. The company posted a series of first status updates to introduce people with the new ‘WhatsApp status’. The statuses seem to be working on all the platforms that include Android, iOS and Windows Phone. We could not verify if they work on WhatsApp Web or WhatsApp for the desktop.

The company sent about six ‘disappearing status’ updates detailing the features of new WhatsApp Status. It established that you can ‘Tap to move to the next status’, edit and post photos, videos and GIFs as your new status. Each update will disappear after 24 hours with no way to access the old status updates. Users can quickly share the highlights of the day with their contacts along with the ability to control who can see your status updates from privacy settings.

The last ‘Status’ in the series asks the users to go ahead and try to post to their ‘status’. The functionality is strikingly similar to what Snapchat is known for but the interesting thing is that this UI looks more familiar to the one that you see while using and browsing through Instagram ‘Stories’ as reported by WABetaInfo. Interesting thing is that this is not the only new thing that the company is working on, it is also working on a revamped UI along with changed layout in the conversation screens along with a new quick camera tab and FAB (Floating Action Button) for Android.

Facebook is trying to go full on against Snapchat and they seem to be copying features and interface blatantly first in Instagram followed by Facebook Messenger and now WhatsApp. The company recently rolled out live video to Instagram for people to engage with their audience. We can only wonder if Facebook does the same with WhatsApp. There is evidence that the company may roll out bots at a future time on WhatsApp along with the verified accounts to enabled Business functionality in WhatsApp just the Facebook Messenger.

We will have to wait and watch for how the entire strategy works out for the company but one thing that we have noticed is that all these features are making all platforms under the company feel exactly the same with different external shells.