New WhatsApp Feature Lets Users Share Status with Trusted Contacts Only

WhatsApp, one of the famous Meta-owned messaging app has constantly been testing new features, and now the company is going to make its status updates more personal. As per the reports, 'Close Friends' feature is going to come to WhatsApp soon, with the help of which users will be able to share their status only with selected friends or trusted contacts. This feature will be like Instagram's 'Close Friend Stories'.

WhatsApp Status works just like Instagram Stories, where photos, short videos or text updates can be posted. These updates are visible for 24 hours and then disappear automatically. According to Meta's data, even though its popularity is less in the US, more than 1.5 billion people around the world update their WhatsApp status daily.

At present, WhatsApp offers three privacy options for sharing status. In this, you can share the update with all contacts, exclude some people, or show the update only to selected contacts. The "Only Share With" option is already present, but the new Close Friends feature will make this process even easier, as a dedicated list can be created in it.

According to the report of WABetaInfo, this feature has already been seen in the TestFlight Beta version of iOS. Under this, users will set up a Close Friends list once, and then while posting each status update, they will be able to easily choose whether to show it to all contacts or only that specific list.

To distinguish these updates from normal status, WhatsApp will show a different colored ring. This will immediately let the members of the list know that this post has been made only for them. The special thing is that, like Instagram, in this feature too the list will be completely private. That is, no notification will be sent that someone has been added or removed from this list. In this way, users will have complete control over who they want to show their private status updates to.

This step is part of Meta's strategy in which it wants to make the user experience on its different apps the same. By bringing Instagram's popular feature to WhatsApp, the company is ensuring that users get the same facility on both platforms, and they can easily switch between these apps.