WhatsApp is testing the same colourful text statuses for its Status tab that Facebook rolled out last year. According to a report in Android Police, the feature is a part of WhatsApp beta version 2.17.291. Users who’ve enrolled into WhatsApp’s official Play Store beta program should get access to new colourful statuses earlier than everyone else. The report notes that this is probably a server-side test, which means the feature might not necessarily be available for all even if they’re on the latest version of the app.
WhatsApp will reportedly add a new floating pencil button right above the camera icon in the Status tab. Users can click on the icon to upload coloured text status. WhatsApp will give users three options – to add emojis, select font, and change background colour – to design coloured text status. Once done, users will need to click on the green arrow icon at the bottom right to post Status.
Facebook started rolling out coloured text status feature for Android in December. It lets users add background colours to text-only posts, and doesn’t work for links, image ,or video posts. Currently, Facebook offers more than ten background colour options to choose from. This includes white, yellow, yellow and orange gradient, red-orange, green and blue gradient and, more. We’ll have to wait and watch what WhatsApp has in store for users.
WhatsApp has announced it has a total of 1.3 billion monthly active users on the app. According to the Facebook-owned company, it has over 250 million daily users on the Status feature. WhatsApp Status, which is a clone of Snapchat’s Stories, was unveiled in February.
WhatsApp, which has more than 200 million users in India, is said to be working on an integrated UPI-based wallet. If reports are anything to be believed, the social messaging platform has initiated discussions with National payments Corporation of India (NCPI) as well.
