WhatsApp brings back the classic Status feature after complaints about the new one

By Daniel Bader
published

If you're a WhatsApp veteran you'll know that until recently the service used the passive and often unwieldy (but extremely popular) status update to give friends and family an idea of what its users were up to. That changed with the proliferating Snapchatification of all of Facebook's properties when WhatsApp added a new Status, lifting Stories straight from the popular ephemeral messaging platform.

But after considerable pushback, WhatsApp has announced that it is adding the original status update back, calling it 'About', since Status is already taken. Beta users can access the new About feature through Settings —> Profile, which will then show in the chat window just as it did before. The feature is meant to live alongside Stories Status, and only happened because thousands of people submitted complaints to the company.

Despite the complaints, WhatsApp continues to be one of the most popular messaging apps in the world, with over 1.2 billion people using it every month.

Daniel Bader
Daniel Bader

Daniel Bader was a former Android Central Editor-in-Chief and Executive Editor for iMore and Windows Central. 

10 Comments
  • I love the new chat UI, even though you didn't mention it..
  • What new chat UI?? Are you a beta user??
  • The new chat bubble has rounded corners now, the attachment icon is in the chat bubble with the camera icon and another change is that there are dedicated icons on the upper right side for video calls and voice call respectively where the attachment icon used to be.
  • Cheers bro
  • Not as nice as IOS yet, but either way good move by whatsapp listening to their users. I wish more companies were like that. (Looking at you Google)
  • Actually i don't see nothing nice about the iOS one that the Android version doesn't have. On the iOS one you still can't send audio file like music.
  • Why they didn't listen the same way about FB messenger with all the crap it has now... :)
  • My Lilly Esin once in a blue moon got a new choice of the crop Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Coupe by unavailable off of a laptop... flash it out ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, http://www.moneytime10.com
  • That's what I have been looking for. Thanks whatsapp. Kudos
  • Ty to whatsapp for keeping some as old , so old is gold about something's