WhatsApp for iOS gets a major upgrade: 10 new features in the updated app

New Delhi: WhatsApp has updated its app for iOS with a handful of new and useful features. While some of the features existed in the Android version, a host of new elements appear to be iOS exclusive for now.

Here are the 10 features new in WhatsApp for iOS version 2.12.5:

1. Mark chats are read/unread: An email-like feature, this is especially helpful in situations when you are in the middle of work and are unable to respond to certain messages. You can choose to mark a conversation (for a group or individual contact) as either read or unread with a swipe to the right. Doing so does not affect the status of the message being received or read (grey or blue ticks) for the sender. The blue dot for unread is only visible to you. Earlier a swipe to the right gave the option to delete a conversation.

2. Mute individual chat: One of the features we listed in our wishlist for WhatsApp, this much-needed tool lets you mute individual conversations. By far, WhatsApp only allowed you to mute group conversations. The updated version also lets you customise chat notifications for each contact, so you will now know right from the message tone who the sender is.

3. Backup videos: Now you also have the option of including WhatsApp videos in your chat backups. All you have to do is go to Settings > Chats and Calls > Chat Backup and enable videos.

4. Location Sharing: You can now directly share your location or nearby places from Apple Maps to WhatsApp. The map thumbnail is also larger in the new iOS version.

5. Auto loading of older messages: Another feature which is not yet extended to the Android version; you no longer need to choose the option to load previous messages within a conversation. All you need to do is keep scrolling and the messages will load automatically.

6. Data usage on WhatsApp calls: This feature has already existed on the Android version. It lets you place calls over the Internet from the app at a lower data cost. We could expect the call quality to be lowered down. You can make the change from Settings > Chats and Calls > Low Data Usage.

7. Disabled show preview: WhatsApp has disabled ‘Show Preview’ setting in the latest update for iOS. As the company explains, it is to providing more secure and private messaging experience.

8. Photo and video cropping: The photo and video cropping feature has been redesigned. It now lets you rotate an image in different angles. Although it doesn’t answer our wish of having the option to share more than 10 photos in one go, we could still hope for more improvements to come.

9. Contact sharing: The new version lets you directly share contacts from the Contacts app to WhatsApp.

10. Better support for VoiceOver: The gesture-based screen reading feature for iOS is now better supported in the new WhatsApp for iOS.