- Whatsapp Beta adds two new features
- Let users join Group call even during the session
- Allow Biometrics such as 3D Face recognition on android
What are the Features?
WhatsApp is one of the primary means of communication for hundreds of millions of users around the globe. It’s free and painless to use, even if alternatives like Telegram are already beating it in terms of features. It’s not every day the Facebook-owned service gets a new feature, but when it does get one, it’s an exciting time for users.
WhatsApp is reportedly bringing two features to the app in a future stable release. The first will appeal to those who regularly miss group calls, while the second will likely charm Google Pixel 4 users in particular.
First Upcoming Feature
As described by tipster WABetaInfo, users may soon be able to join ongoing group calls that they have missed through a new prompt. If a contact invites an unavailable user to a call, that user can then join or ignore said ongoing call the next time they open WhatsApp. It’s a feature that’s seemingly meant to streamline group calls.
Functionally, it would also bring WhatsApp closer to the likes of Zoom and Skype that allow users to join ongoing calls at will.
Second Upcoming Feature
Future WhatsApp builds on Android will also get a feature that first arrived on iOS. Fingerprint lock will be renamed to “Biometric lock” and will expand to cover face unlock and “other unique identifiers.” The general functionality of the feature remains the same. Users can choose to automatically lock the app after a period and can unlock it using their fingerprint or face.
It’s a welcome feature for Android devices like the Pixel 4 that chiefly rely on facial unlock. It should now allow these users to further bolster the security of the chat app. It’s unclear if other novel authentication methods, like LG’s Hand ID, would be supported.
The adoption of face unlock on Android devices has sort of stagnated, though we just saw a recent high-profile device launch with it. The first major Android device to support 3D face unlock was the Pixel 4 series, and Google has slowly been pushing app developers to switch from the older FingerprintManager API to the newer BiometricPrompt API.
There’s not much of an incentive anymore to support face unlock, though, as even Google’s very own Pixel 5 went back to the good old-fashioned fingerprint scanner mounted on the back.
The rise of mask-wearing due to COVID-19 has made face unlock less popular, which means the shift back to fingerprint scanners couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. Still, it’s nice to see apps like WhatsApp prepare to support face unlock for those few Android devices that can actually take advantage of it.
There’s no timeline for the release of these features to WhatsApp’s stable builds, but they seem easier to integrate than the long-awaited linked device feature.
