latest update of WhatsApp is new Status feature released to all users. The text messaging is no more about chats and new platform for entertainment. the text-only status that lets people know whether you're busy or available to chat, the new Status feature uses photos, text, emojis and sketches to show what you're doing. This feature by WhatsApp is so original and never seen before ?
WhatsApp now has a new feature called Status, launched on February 20, which will allow users to update their statuses with time-limited photos, videos, scribbles and GIFs. Sounds familiar?
Facebook, which acquired WhatsApp two years ago for a whopping $19 billion, has always been known to share a rivalry with Snapchat, another dynamic messaging platform, regularly ringing in changes in step with its competitor.
Its latest WhatsApp feature update, though, is more upfront than ever.
Until now, WhatsApp has remained true to its heritage as a messaging application. The option to send GIFs, images, and videos in chats added to its functionality as a communications software and its ‘Calls’ feature only furthered it. But the Facebook-owned company is beginning its transformation into a more social media-esque software with the launch of the new ‘Status’ feature.
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WhatsApp’s Status feature has been enhanced for Android, iPhone and Windows to use photos, videos, and GIF images to create messages that again bear a striking resemblance to Snapchat’s Stories feature. And according to the company blog, it is the biggest fundamental change to the core features of how people use the app.
Jam Koum, WhatsApp's founder and boss, said that it had been working to improve the status feature ever since it was first introduced in 2009. The app was actually created as a way of posting these statuses – so that you could let all your friends and contacts know what you're up to – and has had them ever since, despite company looking to improve them.
"We are excited to announce that, coinciding with WhatsApp's 8th birthday on February 24, we are reinventing the status feature," Mr Koum wrote. "Starting today, we are rolling out an update to status, which allows you to share photos and videos with your friends and contacts on WhatsApp in an easy and secure way. Yes, even your status updates are end-to-end encrypted".
"Just like eight years ago when we first started WhatsApp, this new and improved status feature will let you keep your friends who use WhatsApp easily updated in a fun and simple way. From all of us at WhatsApp, we hope you enjoy it!"Mark Zuckerberg has announced his vision of a video-first social media strategy and the recent revamping of Facebook and its subsidiaries reflects this paradigm-shift. Facebook Live and Instagram Stories have been a runaway hit and the Instagram feature, in particular, has stolen a large chunk of Snapchat's user base. A similar feature on WhatsApp — which, with a user base of over a billion, dwarves both Instagram and Snapchat in number of daily users — will probably spell doom for the company that came up with the idea in the first place.
While Snapchat can’t compete with WhatsApp on sheer numbers, its level of engagement is much higher and more impressive. But after siphoning off some of Snachat’s features, this may all change. And that will again leave many to ponder if the $20 to $25 billion valuation for Snapchat is realistic.
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