WhatsApp lets users get creative with the temporary status message

WhatsApp is introducing new functions for users' temporary status messages and making them multimedia-based. Instead of just text, the messenger now also allows images, collages, music, and stickers for the 24-hour status. Other users can also be invited to react to their status message. These functions are currently being rolled out and should be available everywhere in the coming months.

The wave of new functions for the world's most widely used messenger is therefore not stopping. At the beginning of May, Meta Platforms announced that an AI would be able to summarize WhatsApp messages in the future. This should make it easier to keep track of the flood of daily WhatsApp messages if, for example, larger group chats are summarized by artificial intelligence (AI) so that the user does not have to scroll through the entire message history.

WhatsApp status as text, music, layout, or voice

These AI summaries are not yet available, but the extended status messages are, at least in some cases. In the “News” tab at the bottom of the WhatsApp application (on Android), you can “Add status”, which disappears again after 24 hours. Text, music, layout, and language can now be selected there, and the smartphone camera can also be used to spontaneously create a photo or video for the status.

For music, Meta claims to provide a “library of millions of tracks”, as the company announced at the end of March. This can be searched by title and artist. However, the music tracks are limited to 15 seconds when using a photo and 60 seconds for a video. The voice message as a status message can also be 60 seconds long.

Collage and status interactions

Behind “Layout” is the collage, for which up to six images can be selected. WhatsApp provides editing tools to arrange the photos as the user wishes. However, the individual images cannot be placed freely; there are various rectangular grids. Furthermore, a photo can be turned into a sticker to add it to the status message, WhatsApp writes on its blog.

Once a picture has been selected, contacts can be invited to react to it under “Add yours”. This way, friends, or family members can reply to it in their status to reach more people. With the author's current WhatsApp version (2.25.16.82) on Google Android, it is already possible to add these functions to the status message.

(fds)