WhatsApp is testing a new feature!

Popular chat app WhatsApp is on the way to being transformed to look more and more like Instagram (at least, when it comes to status updates that is). A curious new feature spotted by the folks at WABetaInfo is now rolling out to beta testers on Android, and it allows you to react to status updates with an emoji, just like you can quickly react to Stories on Instagram. What this feature does is pretty straightforward: it allows you to react to someone's status update on WhatsApp with one of eight emojis. The way it looks is very similar to quick reactions to Instagram Stories. The emoji reactions are accessible when you swipe up when you're viewing a status update. On the other hand, when someone reacts to your status update, you will receive the emoji as a message. This way, the app keeps you notified about who has reacted to your status update. Only a few beta testers are able to test this feature right now, and in the following weeks, more beta testers will be getting it. Once it's polished from bugs, it should make its way to an official update, although there is no concrete date for that set in stone just yet. That's not the only new feature that WhatsApp has planned for status updates. Recently, we reported on another feature (again noticed in WhatsApp beta for Android, and it is currently under development) that is enriching your status update experience on the app. This new feature will let you record a voice note as a status update - a simple and hassle-free way to inform your friends and WhatsApp contacts about something that's been going on in your life. Similar to the feature described above, this one is still in testing, so it might take some time before we actually see it as an official part of the popular chat app's feature set. Right now, you can choose to write text or image as a status update, and the voice note will give you more options for a new status in the future.

But that's not all. Another recently noticed status update feature that the company is working on is the possibility to show status updates right in your chat list. This feature's aim is to make it easier for you to see who has published a new status update, so you can keep up with your friends at a glance (in a way). First spotted in the desktop version of WhatsApp, this new feature has also made its way to iOS and Android (or at least, it is currently being developed for those platforms as well). From all you can see here, it seems WhatsApp is getting serious with those status updates. One can't help but wonder whether WhatsApp is thinking of upgrading them from simply a way to put something in a chat app to full-blown Instagram-like Stories. For now, there's no official information confirming or denying such plans and we are basing our speculation only on the frequency of the developed features for the Status Update section, as well as what those features aim to accomplish.