Facial unlocking and the ability to join missed video calls still in progress are two features expected by WhatsApp users, which could arrive soon
Two important new features are coming to WhatsApp: biometric unlocking with the face, i.e. facial recognition of the user, and the ability to join a group call or video call at a later time. Both new features were introduced in the beta version 2.20.203.3 of WhatsApp for Android.
It is not possible to know when one or both of these new features will arrive in the final and stable app of the Facebook group's instant messaging service, but it is clear that WhatsApp engineers are working on it and it is equally clear that these are two new features that would make users happy. Il riconoscimento facciale, infatti, offrirebbe uno strato di sicurezza in più su molti smartphone Android mentre la possibilità di partecipare a call già iniziate aumenterebbe di parecchio l’utilità di WhatsApp e la sua competitività nell’ormai affollatissimo gruppo di app per videochiamate.
WhatsApp: il nuovo sblocco con il volto
Già oggi WhatsApp offre il riconoscimento biometrico come opzione di blocco e sblocco dell’app: andando su Impostazioni > Privacy > Blocco con impronta digitale possiamo settare un tempo massimo oltre il quale per accedere all’app è necessario usare l’impronta.
Questa funzione tutela la nostra privacy quando, ad esempio, lasciamo lo smartphone incustodito su un tavolo in un luogo pubblico. The fingerprint recognition, however, is done at the operating system level and not at the app level and, what's more, there are smartphones that don't have a fingerprint sensor but only use face reading as a biometric parameter for unlocking.
On these smartphones, therefore, today it is impossible to lock the WhatsApp app. But it will be in the future, if face recognition becomes a feature of the official stable app. At the moment, however, this feature was introduced only in the beta for Android and there is no news regarding the iOS app.
WhatsApp: join a missed video call
Another very useful feature introduced in the beta 2.20.203.3 of WhatsApp for Android is the ability to join a video call or group audio call even at a later time. If the call is still in progress, in fact, it is now possible to join by tapping on the missed call.
All this is very useful, because it puts WhatsApp on par with other video conferencing apps that, however, use a different system to achieve the same purpose: sending a link to the video call, on which the invited user can click to join the call while it is still in progress.
On WhatsApp beta, however, the link is not there but the access to a group call already started is even easier. In addition, this feature for the Android app goes hand in hand with another one that just popped up in the latest WhatsApp Web beta: we can now make calls and video calls on WhatsApp for Web as well.