Most of WhatsApp’s recent changes relate to features like Channels, which were widely introduced last year. For example, there will be the possibility of sharing Channel messages in the form of a status. Now it appears that WhatsApp is preparing a new design for the Status section within the Updates tab, which houses status posts from your friends and channels.
WhatsApp: there is a section in the updates that will change!
The well-known website WABetaInfo found some new features in v2.24.4.23 of the WhatsApp beta for Android. This update basically makes the status section more prominent within the Updates tab. However, it appears that the change is only appearing for some people who are testing this version. So even if you have the latest version installed you may not be able to access the new design.
Although the WABetaInfo screenshot only shows a preview of the user’s uploaded status, your contacts’ updates should appear right next to them, in a card format. On the other hand, the older design of the Status section uses a circular icon with the user’s screen image. This new design also provides a quick preview of the status that contacts have posted.
A possible concern is that these card-based status previews take up more space in the channel’s update list. However, previews are definitely the way to go for status updates, so users can easily choose which updates they want to see or ignore. If you publish multiple status updates, users should be able to see the first one in the preview. We assume that tapping the preview will open a list of the other visible updates from that particular contact.
As this design in the Status tab only appeared in the WhatsApp beta, it is too early to say whether it will reach the stable version of the app in the future. But given that this design offers a significant improvement over existing status previews, we hope it will be included.