At the moment, WhatsApp lets you star messages so you can jump back to them when needed. But these are only visible to the person who saves them in a chat and is only accessible through chat options.
However, WhatsApp is also working on the ability to pin messages in a chat, similar to rival messenger apps like Discord, Telegram, and others. The feature was spotted in the latest beta version of WhatsApp Android (2.23.3.17) and was uncovered by WABetaInfo.Â
Just like starred messages, pinned messages will also let you save important conversations for later. Tapping on a pinned message will take you straight back to the original message in the chat. But unlike starred messages, pinned messages will be visible to everyone in the chat.
In case you don’t have WhatsApp’s latest update for pinned messages, the app will tell you to update to the latest version to enable it.
Since this feature is now available in beta, it should roll out to the stable version soon.
Call Shortcuts
WhatsApp is also planning to make calls easier and quicker with a new update. Similar to chat shortcuts, the app will soon let you add call shortcuts to your phone’s home screen, letting you make a call without opening the app.
You can make a call shortcut by going into your WhatsApp contacts and navigating through call options. Here WhatsApp will let you add call shortcuts for specific contacts.
This feature was also spotted in one of the latest beta WhatsApp beta versions for Android, meaning it should launch widely soon.
More Accounts Banned
In related news, WhatsApp banned even more accounts in December 2022, according to its recently shared safety report. The report revealed that WhatsApp banned more than 3.6 million “bad” accounts during the month.
These accounts were found violating WhatsApp’s rules and policies. Meta reported that they proactively banned these accounts before receiving any user reports, meaning the company took the initiative to remove these accounts from their servers.
