WhatsApp might let you login to multiple devices soon, clear entire chats etc

WhatsApp has been testing a couple of new features and some of them have been spotted in the latest beta update. Discovered by WABetaInfo for beta builds on both Android and iOS, these new features include a multiple device login, clearing chats and improved search function for in-chat searches.

The most interesting feature seems to be the multi-device login support and this is bound to please a lot of people. Being able to use the chat service across multiple platforms/devices can save time and be less frustrating and thus will be much appreciated.

Currently, you can be logged in from only one mobile device and a PC/Mac web browser at the most, at the same time. You can swap between these but you can be logged-in on only one at a time. Having to log out of devices is frustrating and all the more since the sign-in process is a little long-drawn.

WABetaInfo has pointed out that WhatsApp is testing multi-device login with up to four devices at a time, however, this support is not user-facing within WhatsApp beta builds yet. Four devices is not as many as what some other chat platforms like Telegram offer, but of course, it is better than the current two-device limit they have.

Besides this, incoming features include an improvement in the chat searches. WhatsApp is working on letting you ‘search by date’ when you are looking through your current conversations and group chats. This will help you find specific conversations and media information you might be looking for within a chat.

WABetaInfo’s screenshots show the iOS version of the improved chat searches, but this is expected to come to Android beta soon too. And not just this, WhatsApp is also working on letting you search messages on the web - you can currently do this only on the mobile. The platform will include a new toggle feature soon that will allow you to search for messages and media on the web browser as well.

There is one more feature that’s coming in and that’s the enhances Storage Usage feature that will let users view how much storage the media saved from WhatsApp has occupied on your smartphone. This is a complete overhaul of the current section that gives you storage information.

There’s more though. A future update on WhatsApp is going to give users the ability to clear entire chats and keep only starred messages. If there are chats you have that only have certain things of importance, which you have starred, and are otherwise redundant - you will be able to clear the entire chat out and keep only the starred messages. This is an improvement on the current clear chat option that removes all conversations from a chat currently.

Last but not least, there is support for ShareChat video coming in too. This service is not as popular in India but ShareChat is a social network that includes chatrooms. “WhatsApp has decided to integrate a dedicated player for videos hosted on ShareChat, so you will be able to see them within WhatsApp. When the feature will be available and you share a ShareChat video link, its preview will be available in WhatsApp,” WABetaInfo said.

All of these features are currently being worked on and will gradually be rolled out.