WhatsApp is the most popular instant messaging app globally and has over 1.3 billion users worldwide. But that poses one big challenge for the app, which is to tackle the spread of what may be fake, incorrect or violence-inciting news on the platform. WhatsApp has been trying to combat fake news by restricting forwarded messages, as well as released commercials to educate the masses about the news that is shared on the platform. There is another feature that could help them tackle fake news. WhatsApp is about to integrate a reverse image search system via Google Images, to verify the authenticity of the image that you may have received in a message, for instance.
Additionally, in order to expand its user base, WhatsApp is known to launch new features from time to time. Let’s take a look at the new features that the Facebook-owned app is going to release in the coming months.
Reverse image search
According to a report by a WABetainfo, WhatsApp beta 2.19.73 update for Android has been spotted with a 'Search image' feature which will take a user to Google in order to search for similar images as the one which a user may have received in a WhatsApp chat. WABetaInfo mentions that the new feature isn't yet available, though the screenshots do suggest it is being tested on Android at the moment. The feature might use Google APIs to operate, it will also need to upload the image to Google from the WhatsApp chat as well.
This feature will be very useful because it can help us to understand if news is fake: when you receive an image, you can try to search it on the Web using this feature, so you can discover if it’s fake by reading info on the Web related to that image.
Dark Mode
A bunch of apps today offer dark-mode which is primarily a theme with dark colours and dim lighting. Not only does this help in using the app at night, but it also helps to conserve battery life of your device. We are expecting this feature to hit WhatsApp soon.
3D Touch Action
Exclusive to iPhone users, this feature is speculated to let you to secretly read someone's status without intimidating them. The feature is said to be already available to WhatsApp beta users and should be rolled out end users soon enough.
Private Replies
A long-awaited feature, private replies was recently introduced for Android users. This feature is expected to finally reach iOS devices. With this feature, users can privately reply to a person in a group chat.
Audio Picker
A new update should introduce a revamped audio picker for WhatsApp. This will allow users to play the audio file before sending it to their contacts. Apart from that, all audio and music files stored on your phone will also be listed in the app for you to send and at a time you will be able to send 30 audio files in one go.
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