During the year 2021, WhatsApp came under severe criticism after announcing a new privacy policy for its users. The controversy gained so much strength that many users left the application behind in order to embark on new alternatives, such as Telegram and Signal. In any case, this was not enough for WhatsApp to lose its popularity around the world. To continue like this, some news should be announced in 2022.
In this article, we list the most anticipated features for the course of this year and that should serve a considerable community of users, from simple features such as message reactions (which we can already find on Telegram, for example), to more elaborate news such as support cryptocurrencies and audio transcription.
7 news for WhatsApp in 2022
1. Reactions to messages
Already available on rival services such as Telegram, the option to react to messages has not yet arrived on WhatsApp. This feature was scheduled to arrive last August, but there is still nothing new in this regard. This function will allow you to react quickly to any message received in conversations, using an emoji, as is already the case in other apps in your universe, such as Facebook Messenger, Instagram and iMessage.
2. Multiple devices
Still in beta, the function of using multiple devices may finally arrive in the official version of WhatsApp. This was suggested thanks to the leak of a 2.0 version of the feature, where it is now possible to add one more mobile device to the same account. With the same account on different devices, the user would no longer have to worry about keeping the original device always connected to the internet.
When linking your second mobile device for the first time, the app will sync your chat history through the platform’s servers. After that, whenever the app is opened, messages are automatically downloaded to keep the two devices in sync.
3. Shortcut for quick replies
Another function that will allow you to interact with messages more quickly is the ready messages shortcut, as it currently exists in the Business version of the application. The function, still without an official arrival date, is already being tested in the beta version of WhatsApp for Android and iOS.
The idea is to replace the old shortcut “/” with quick messages to send through the app, a very useful feature for those who do business via messenger and who usually talk to many people every day.
4. Communities
In the article we did this week with the main features that WhatsApp lacks, but are already present in competing alternatives, one of the most commented options is the creation of Communities. Apparently, this feature is already under development and should work in the same way as Telegram channels, for example.
Communities can be created for a general purpose and small groups for specific purposes. For example, a community is created for a school or college subject, where smaller groups of classes will be linked, allowing administrators greater management control.
5. Cryptocurrencies
After the bank transfers function, WhatsApp is studying the implementation of cryptocurrencies in the application. As far as is known, there is already a partnership with Novi — Facebook’s digital wallet, which will allow the sending and receiving of crypto assets directly from the app. The feature should be made available first to users in the United States, but the company is already thinking about expanding to other countries and regions, if the feedback is positive in this first wave of tests.
6. Administrators will be able to delete messages
It is not new that platform users ask for the role of group administrators to be able to delete messages from other users. So far, there is nothing official, but it is possible that this feature will finally arrive on WhatsApp in 2022, counting that a leak showed the function in operation.
In addition to the option to delete messages from other users, the company intends to increase the powers of group administrators in general, which can increase moderation in groups on the platform.
7. Transcription of audios
The function of transcribing audio is highly requested by a large number of users, but also very controversial. Its objective is nothing more than to be able to transcribe the messages that are sent or received by audio. The problem is that its functioning will depend on servers to be able to identify what is being said and then reserve this text to be read again at other times.
According to experts, this can compromise the user’s privacy, since their messages will not be allocated only on their cell phone. Insisting that the function does not harm the privacy of its users, it seems that the platform is already developing this feature, which should first appear on iOS devices, where they will be able to use the device’s speech recognition.