The very famous and widely used messaging application whatsapp has recently launched its new ‘Status’ feature. This is the biggest change introduced since facebook has acquired the whatsapp. The news regarding the launch of this new feature has been announced by Facebook’s co-founder Jan Koum. He wrote : “We are excited to announce that, coinciding with WhatsApp’s 8th birthday on February 24, we are reinventing the status feature. Starting today, we are rolling out an update to status, which allows you to share photos and videos with your friends and contacts on WhatsApp in an easy and secure way. Yes, even your status updates are end-to-end encrypted”
With the introduction of ‘Status’ feature in whatsapp, it will become kind of social media for the users. Users will be able to share Photos, Videos and GIF images on their whatsapp newsfeed. This is exactly a clone of the Snapchat’s feature which allows users to share media and then the shared content vanishes after 24 hours. The same will happen in whatsapp. Users will be able to share their media with their contacts and the media will disappear after 24 hours.
Difference between Chats and Status Feature :
The basic difference between users sharing their media in chats and on Status page is that they can share their favourite media in chats to only specific contacts but when they share something on Status page, it appears to all of their contacts at once and disappear after 24 hours of posting it. It will be like self destructing posts. But the similarity in the posts is that both chats and status are end to end encrypted. That means no body can see what you are sending or receiving. Not even whatsapp will be able to see your chats and posts, as per the company.
This feature was first rolled out to beta users and currently it is being introduced to others users gradually from February 20. Means, if you are not able to view the status tab currently then you have to wait for some time to get this feature enrolled to you. Make sure that your whatsapp is up to date and check if you have been granted this feature as of now.
Opportunity for Advertisement :
This feature will provide an opportunity for advertisement on whatsapp. Similar to the way how we see ads on Facebook and Instagram, apps owned by the Facebook Company. It is worth noting that both Facebook and Whatsapp has promised that their applications will be ad-free.
Whatsapp has launched so many features like voice calling, video calling and ability to share documents, but it has still very easy to use interface, unlike Wechat and Nimbuzz which has more features but it makes very complicated for the users to use their applications. This easy interface makes more users to use this messaging application. Currently whatsapp has 1.2 billion monthly users. With the introduction of ‘Status’ feature, we hope whatsapp will be a part of more and more people’s lives.
How to Use Status Feature :
Update your whatsapp application if you are not yet having this new feature. Once you are able to see a new tab called Status, you need to click on it and you will see a + (plus) sign. On clicking the plus sign, the camera app will open which allows you to directly share your media. You can also add emojis, text etc.
Very soon I will be posting a detailed guide on how to use this feature. If you found this post helpful, please like it and share it on your social networks.
4 Comments