Somewhat surprisingly, the Meta software design team has announced an important innovation for Whatsapp: this is the fifth major change for theuser interface from 2011 to today and, in practice, it is the sum of several small and large changes carried out in recent months and which are now being incorporated into a one big updatefor everyone around the world, for both iPhone and Android.
The strange thing, however, is that this update includes many new features already announced and, in some cases, already appeared on some apps but, on the contrary, it does not include a new feature just launched in the latest beta version. Furthermore, compared to what was announced for the American apps, there is one in Italy a feature that hasn’t arrived yet.
WhatsApp: the new interface
The news of new interface 2024 For Whatsapp on Android and iOS there are mainly two: moving the navigation bar at the bottom of the app and the insertion, in its place at the top, of three chat filters (All, Not read, Groups). To show the three filters, however, you need to drag the list of chats down with your finger because the filters are located above the archived chats section.
The navigation bar also now includes four buttons: Chat, Updates, Community And Calls. The only button that needs explanation is the button on Updateswhich allows access to a section of WhatsApp where the user can find both status updates of his contacts both i channels to which he is registered.
Other minor changes of the interface concern the colors, with a much more moderate use of green, in favor of white, some animations and the new area dedicated to attachments (only for iOS).
WhatsApp: ask the Meta AI
To these changes is added another, which however is not yet available in Italy. This is the search bar “Ask Meta AI“, positioned above the three filters at the top of the app. In practice it is a chatbots inserted within WhatsApp, but is currently only available in English apps.
It is not yet very clear what Meta intends to do with artificial intelligence within WhatsApp: the company talks about Meta AI as a “character” to which it is possible ask questions For get answers.
According to WhatsApp’s Italian help, in fact, with Meta AI it is possible:
- converse with Meta AI and other characters
- chat with Meta AI in existing group chats
- ask questions and receive useful advice
- talk about common interests
- interact with the contents
- create AI-generated images in chats
WhatsApp: the news that isn’t there
One of news that everyone was expecting in this big update to the WhatsApp user interface, but which has not arrived, concerns the channels.
It’s about the possibility of filter channels by topic (politics, economics, sports, etc etc…), in order to find them more easily. This feature has appeared in beta apps, but is missing from the newly launched update.
So at the moment the only way to find a channel is through his name. So if in the channel name there is no, for example, “politics” or “economy” we can’t search for it by topic if we don’t know the exact name.
It is clear, however, that if WhatsApp wants to give a impulse to the channels and make them an important feature of the app, then it will have to fix this part of the interface a lot and collateral functions. Perhaps this is precisely why the channels are not included in this great update: they deserve a dedicated update.
