It’s been ten full yearssince Meta (then Facebook) acquired WhatsApp. While it was a controversial takeover back then, consideringFacebook’s iffy stance on user privacy, it isn’t like WhatsApp crumbled after that point. Quite the contrary, WhatsApp flourished as a messaging app, found billions of takers across the globe, and actually got better at what it’s supposed to do: keeping people connected. In fact, most WhatsApp features that we can’t live without today were introduced by Meta — and you’d be surprised by a few of them. Here are the top features WhatsApp added in the last decade that have completely changed the way we use the app.
1Voice and video calls
Introduced in 2016
At this point, we don’t really think twice before video calling someone on WhatsApp, but the feature came along notthatlong ago. WhatsApp got its video calling feature only in 2016, and before that, you could only send text messages to your friends and family. However, the arrival of voice and video calling changed the game for all WhatsApp users.
WhatsApp’s reach made these calls an instant success as you could now get in touch with your close ones who are already using the messaging app. This made WhatsApp the default choice for voice and video calls over any of its alternatives. And that’s when WhatsApp’s video quality wasn’t as good as what Google Duo and Apple FaceTime offered back in the day. Moreover, being cross-platform also worked in WhatsApp’s favor with no device restrictions that FaceTime users continue to face.
2Chat backup to Google Drive
Introduced in 2018
This feature is a godsend.Cloud chat backups help keep your WhatsApp data safeand let you restore it if something goes south. It also comes in handy when switching devices — I cannot tell how useful the feature is for reviewers like me who need to frequently jump between phones.
Without cloud backup, you’d have to rely on manual ways to move the backup data between devices, which increases the chance of something messing up. And if you accidentally lose your phone or wipe its data, your chats are gone for good. Cloud backup saves you from all that risk.
It has undergone several changes in the past few years. WhatsApp and Google earlier tied up to offer unlimited free backup space, butit recently started counting against your Drive storage quota. On the brighter side, WhatsApp has made it easier to move your chats when you’re switching between Android and iOS.
3Multi-device support
Introduced in 2021
Perhaps one of the most asked-for features has to be the support for WhatsApp on multiple devices. WhatsApp has traditionally been meant to be used on a single phone, but people with multiple devices have for long found it limiting without the option to chat on whichever device they’re on. Following that, WhatsApp introduced the ability tosync your chats with your laptop, allowing you to stay connected on WhatsApp without using your phone.
But WhatsApp didn’t stop there. While you can use WhatsApp on your computer and phone simultaneously, you can’t run the same WhatsApp account on multiple phones. The chat app introduced that capability,letting you have companion phones that can run WhatsApp independently, making it easy for people with multiple phones. And don’t worry about your chats’ privacy on these secondary devices as your messages are as secure as they are on your primary phone.
4Disappearing messages
Introduced in 2020
WhatsApp is already one of the better apps for privacy-conscious users since your chats and calls are end-to-end encrypted by default, unlike Telegram and Facebook Messenger. So, no one can snoop on your messages, not even WhatsApp. But for additional peace of mind, WhatsApp added the option to send messages that disappear after a set period.
You can set a timer for each of your chats, and any messages in there will automatically disappear after the set time — you can choose between 24 hours, 7 days, and 90 days. This also comes in handy if you often need to briefly talk to people outside your contacts and don’t want to keep their chats for a long time. You can even choose to automatically start all new chats with this timer. Additionally, you can send media files to your friends they can view them only once in case you don’t want your photos to end up in their personal gallery.
5Lock chats
Introduced in 2023
WhatsApp now lets you step up your chat privacy even moreby locking individual chats behind your phone lock. This is another way of keeping people from snooping on your personal chats even if they have access to your phone. Once locked, these chats won’t be visible unless you authenticate it’s you with your biometrics, adding an extra layer of security.
Meta has spent the last decade adding a bunch of security and privacy features like this to WhatsApp. It is evident from another native feature, with which you can lock the entire WhatsApp app with your fingerprint to keep all your chats safe from unauthorized access.
How to use WhatsApp Chat Lock
Secure your privacy over WhatsApp with this handy feature
6Sharing live location
Introduced in 2017
There are times when you want your friends and family to know exactly where you are. While the option to share your live location already exists in Apple Family Sharing and in Google Maps,WhatsApp offers ease and ubiquity like no other. If you’ve gone on a remote hiking trip or are meeting someone for the first time, you can keep your friends in the loop so that they can keep track of you in case something isn’t right. This is a great security tool that helps people every single day.
7High-quality media sharing
Among many other uses, WhatsApp is also the place where people send photos and videos to each other. Instead of diving into the sharing menu ofGoogle Photos,sending your trip photos to your friends' group on WhatsApp is far easier. But the problem has been that WhatsApp butchers the media quality to make transfers quicker while saving you some bandwidth and even storage space for media backups.
But thankfully, it recently added the option to send photos and videos in high quality — not full size just yet, but something is better than nothing. And the quality is much better than what we had to deal with earlier. This is an opt-in feature, which means WhatsApp still defaults to its low-quality mode, but you get to choose the HD option each time you’re sharing media.
It is WhatsApp’s world we live in
There was a moment a couple of years ago when people started flocking to Telegram and Signalafter WhatsApp started implementing a policy change. But after an initial, ephemeral wave, everybody was back to WhatsApp. That’s because you cannot get everyone in your friends and family group to leave behind the habit of using WhatsApp in favor of something unfamiliar. While it hasn’t taken North America by storm, WhatsApp is still the default choice for messaging nearly everywhere else, and that’s despite the downsides of it being owned by Meta.
In the last decade, WhatsApp has only grown bigger with Meta continuing to invest its time and resourcesto make the messaging app even more feature-richto draw in new users. While it’s easy to get used to the features listed here, there is hopefully much more on the way from WhatsApp in 2024 and beyond.
