WhatsApp now lets you open chat, without even visiting app
What's the story
WhatsApp has rolled out a new feature through which users can directly open a chat window of a particular contact without having to visit the app itself. To be able to use the feature, you need to update your WhatsApp to Android version 2.18.138. We believe that the quick chat feature will be the most useful while working on the web. Here's why.
Details
Here's how the feature works
The Facebook-owned messaging service has registered a new domain www.wa.me, which is a short link of api.whatsapp.com. To quickly open a chat in WhatsApp Web, users just need to type out https://wa.me/(contact phone number). They will automatically be directed to the chat of that particular person without having to open the entire web version of the app and then searching for the contact.
Information
The feature won't work with incorrect phone numbers
Notably, if you try to use the feature by entering an incorrect phone number, you will be notified by WhatsApp with this message: phone number shared via URL is invalid.
Upcoming Feature
WhatsApp to get support for stickers
WhatsApp has also beta-rolled out its stickers feature. Support for stickers will allow users to interact on WhatsApp in a different way, through something other than emojis. Apart from using WhatsApp's own sticker album, users will also reportedly be able to download additional sticker packs from third-party developers from an app store. Users will be able to send two stickers in a single message.
Information
WhatsApp disables in-chat YouTube support for iOS 10 and below
Further, WhatsApp has reportedly dropped native YouTube support for iOS 10 and below. Only users with iOS 11 can now open YouTube videos in-chat instead of getting redirected to the YouTube app. The in-chat YouTube feature had come to iOS in 2017.