Zuckerberg and the CEO of WhatsApp have talked about the platform unveiling many of the new features coming: here are what and when they will arrive
To have a WhatsApp conversation with the CEO of the world's most famous instant messaging service Will Cathcart does not happen every day. Yet it happened to the manager of the well-known portal WABetaInfo, the one that usually manages to anticipate the news that affect the platform involving users in the "daily" of the app that few or none can give up.
Curious is the explanation regarding the reason for the birth of a portal like WABetaInfo: the owner, tired of the changelog "sewn" of WhatsApp at the release of a new feature, has sensed that the creation of a virtual space where curious and insiders could deepen the features introduced could be successful, and so it was. Hence the possibility, five years after its birth, to have a broad and direct dialogue with the man who directs the fortunes of WhatsApp, CEO Will Cathcart, and also with the owner of the entire group that also includes Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg. An opportunity more unique than rare to discuss WhatsApp and evolutions in the short and medium term with two excellent personalities.
The attention of WhatsApp to privacy
From the conversation of the three has emerged that according to data in the hands of Zuckerberg the most important interaction between WhatsApp users is private messaging. So after having introduced the Ephemeral Messages, other features are being developed in this direction with the aim of ensuring even more "private" conversations.
Zuckerberg has unbuttoned on the subject, anticipating that WhatsApp will soon adopt a setting with which to establish that all new conversations can be based on Ephemeral Messages, so as not to have to recall them manually from time to time with the risk of forgetting.
Also coming soon - and these are always Zuckerberg's words - the possibility to decide that photos and videos sent in a conversation can be viewed only once by the recipient before being deleted forever, a bit along the lines of what already happens on Instagram.
In all likelihood, the arrival time will be shorter for those who use WhatsApp in beta version, a channel in which the company tests the new features to get rid of bugs before deciding whether to transfer them to the stable version of the application, the one that is freely available on Google Play Store, App Store, Huawei AppGallery and company.
The surprises are not over, indeed!
The conversation moves to a certain point on the possibility, long awaited, to have the same WhatsApp account, then using the same phone number, on multiple devices. That is, the infamous "WhatsApp Multi-device". Zuckerberg confirmed that the rollout of this novelty will happen soon, at the end of "a great technical challenge regarding the messages and content to be synchronized on different devices".
The multi-device will come soon really: the two top managers of WhatsApp have even unbalanced themselves by announcing that they will arrive within the next two months in the public beta channel.
The conversation closed with further anticipations, perhaps the most interesting of all: WhatsApp will introduce native iPad support thanks to multi-device, which will support up to four devices, while many more iOS users will soon be given the opportunity to join WhatsApp beta.