Messaging app

After years of requests, WhatsApp is finally, fully available on Apple Watch. The app gives users access to many of the core messaging functions found on the phone version, including reading and responding to chats, recording and sending voice messages, and viewing photos and stickers.

The new app will allow users to check messages, respond with quick replies, and listen to or send voice notes directly through the watch. If you rely on WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends, family or work, you can now use it while on a run, during a commute, or in situations where using a phone isn’t possible.

The adoption of business messaging channels has increased by 53 percent in just one year, driven by AI agents and LLM-powered automation.

A report from respond.io shows small and medium-sized businesses are increasingly engaging customers through platforms like WhatsApp, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger.

Read receipts in WhatsApp are getting an upgrade. The two-tick system that appears below the sent message is loved and hated; yes, it lets you know that a message is sending, that it has been received, and that it has been read – but why is there no response now you know that it has been read!?

Putting aside concerns about why someone may be ignoring you, themes in WhatsApp which change the color of the messaging app can be problematic. If you’d become used to read receipts having blue check marks, the fact that some themes changed that had the potential for confusion. Now WhatsApp is addressing this.

While WhatsApp is, ostensibly, a messaging, chat and video calling platform, it is more than that; it is also a pseudo social media platform. The Status section of WhatsApp has gradually evolved over the years to become a way to not only indicate your availability, but to express much more.

And now Status has received another massive upgrade. It is now possible to display a collage of multiple photos, share music, and much more. A plethora of new options are rolling out globally; here's what you have to look forward to.

Marking the end of an era, May sees the retirement of Skype, Microsoft’s loved and loathed messaging app. The death of Skype has been a long time coming, with the aged platform struggling to keep pace with the competition, and now the last rites can be read. Today, May 5, is the day Microsoft pulls the plug.

The writing was on the wall for Skype as soon as Microsoft started development of Teams, and this is precisely where the company is hoping ex-Skype users will move to. But while paying and non-paying users of Skype will have to find a new home, Skype for Business lives on... for now.

WhatsApp has started the rollout of a feature it says that users have been asking for -- chat themes. Using a combination of wallpapers and colored chat bubbles, every conversation can be given its own look.

This is a change that is about more than aesthetics, though. In providing the option to make every chat look different, WhatsApp is making it much easier to identify chats and avoid the tricky issue of sending a message to the wrong person or group.

In a sea of messaging apps, WhatsApp remains one of the most widely used, its popularity buoyed by end-to-end encryption. Meta has now added a new feature aimed at "those who are particularly privacy-conscious".

There is a new option to protect your IP address by hiding it from other WhatsApp users during calls. This is important as IP addresses can reveal quite a lot, including location. While the new call relaying privacy measures are likely to be welcomed, there are a couple of significant caveats to keep in mind.

Life is about to get a little easier for WhatsApp users with more than one account. Many people have a work phone and a personal device, each associated with a different WhatsApp account. There are also plenty of users with two phone numbers for other reasons.

Simplifying living with more than one account, WhatsApp is introducing the ability to log into two accounts simultaneously. This eliminates the need to keep logging in and out, or having to carry two phones around to stay connected. So what's the catch?

There are many ways to use Meta's WhatsApp. From typing text-based messages through sending photos, to full-on video chats, there are options to suit just about every eventuality.

With voice messaging having proved incredibly popular, WhatsApp is now expanding its instant messaging options to include video. Just like its audio-based cousin, instant video message let you quickly record and share messages -- this time with video.