WhatsApp this week: Dark Mode, animated stickers, and more

WhatsApp released a bunch of major updates to its platform last week. After a span almost a year, the company gave its users a glimpse of how the dark theme would look like on its Android operating system based app.

In addition to that, the company company also made changes to its sticker pack and its Delete Messages option.

If you haven't caught up with the changes that hit the messaging app this week, here's your weekly dose of WhatsApp updates:

WhatsApp's Android app gets dark mode: As mentioned before, WhatsApp finally rolled out dark mode to its Android beta users. The feature is available as a part of WhatsApp Beta for Android version 2.20.13. This feature is available in the Themes section of the app's Chat Settings and it gives users a total of four theme options, including Light Theme, Dark Theme, System Default and Set by Battery Saver, to pick from.

Animated Stickers: WhatsApp also made some changes to its Animated Stickers option that has been in development for quite some time now. The company now shows a play icon in front of the animated sticker in a bid to make it easy for its Android users to understand, which sticker is animated.

Delete Messages: Last year, several reports noted that the company was working on a feature that would allow users to preset a time period after which a message would get deleted automatically. Now the company has added a Delete Messages feature in the chat window that tells users about the state of the feature. This means that the feature will tell users if the Delete Messages feature is turned on and for how long has the self destruct timer been set for.

It is worth noting that this feature is still in the developmental phase. There is no word on when this feature will be available on the company's Android app.

Account Transfer: WhatsApp is working on adding a new feature to its Android app that would users to transfer their accounts to another smartphone without having to register their phone numbers again.

Dark Mode on iPhones: WhatsApp is yet to roll out dark mode on its iOS-based app. According to a report by WABetaInfo, the company is actively working on bringing the feature to its iPhone users. The company has redesigned splash screen and group and profile icons to support the dark theme. This indicates that the company is inching closer to rolling out this feature on its iOS beta app.