Did you know you can customize Google to filter out garbage? Take these steps for better search results, including adding my work at Lifehacker as a preferred source.
On Monday, Meta announced six new features it rolled out to WhatsApp users. The thing is, these features might not be that new. The company somewhat confusingly says these features have been added to the app “over the past few months,” despite some clearly rolling out only within the past few days.
While it might be tough to say when each of these features officially dropped, the point is they’re here now, and you can try them out today. Here are the six new features Meta highlighted, and what you can expect to see the next time you open the app:
Support for Live Photos and Motion Photos
Perhaps the biggest news of the bunch is support for Live Photos (iOS) and Motion Photos (Android). Before this latest update, these moving photos would simply as static images, so you’d miss out on the extra few seconds of motion and audio. If you wanted to send the full Live Photo or Motion Photo, you needed to choose a different messaging app. No longer!
It’s the latest WhatsApp update to make it easer to freely share media. Over the years, the company has slowly updated its policies on sharing high quality photos and videos. It was only in 2024 that WhatsApp finally let you share these images in full resolution, so it’s not that surprising to me that it took this long for Live Photo support.
Document scanning on Android
If you frequently share documents on WhatsApp, this is great news: Android users now have access to the app’s built-in document scanner. This feature was previously exclusive to iPhones, so it’s good to see it arrive on the Android version as well.
You’l find the “Document” option under the (+) button in any given chat.
Meta’s custom, AI-generated chat themes are now available in WhatsApp. The feature is a bit buried in the “Chat theme” settings, but after tapping “Create with AI,” you can ask the bot to generate any type of background you want. If you can’t think of anything, Meta AI has a series of pre-generated backgrounds you can use.
What do you think so far?