Revamped, auto-expiring WhatsApp Status rolls out to all making it more like Snapchat

Vlad, 20 February 2017

Facebook's quest to make all of its mobile apps more like Snapchat hasn't ended. The latest victim is WhatsApp, though the Snapchatifying isn't as prevalent here as it is in Instagram or Facebook Messenger, for example. The good news is that you can simply ignore the new functionality if you want to - it's easy.

The bad news? Well, it's still there. The new WhatsApp Status is now rolling out to all of the app's users, following a testing period which began last November. Up until this point you were only able to issue a text status message in WhatsApp, but from now on it will basically act like a clone of Instagram Stories, itself a clone of Snapchat Stories.

You can add pictures, videos, and GIFs in your status now, personalizing them with emojis, text, and drawings. Every status automatically expires after 24 hours, of course, as otherwise this wouldn't have been enough of a Snapchat rip-off. Oh, and there's also a "seen by" counter. In an interesting twist, WhatsApp says your statuses will be end-to-end encrypted just like your messages.

Source | Via

Reader comments

???
04 Mar 2017
LC8

so? I thin 99% of users will love to see the statuses to stay as long as we want, its very frustrating trying too look for somebody in specific and that crap just plays itself without letting us properly see a status

AnonD-456829
23 Feb 2017
U{t

Updated today and gave me a headache

Anonymous
22 Feb 2017
kaJ

Everybody's a cynic or a troll nowadays in the worst ways. How does adding more features become a BAD thing especially if they are features that you can ignore? Instagram came up with a cool innovative idea and it has become like an industry staple.....