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

WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world. Its easy to use interface and wide feature set makes it popular among people from all age groups. While the app already offers a diverse set of interesting and utilitarian features, the company is constantly working on introducing new features and tweaking the old ones available on its platform.

In case you haven't been able to catch up with the app's upcoming features, here's your weekly dose of WhatsApp updates:

WhatsApp beta for Android 2.20.8 brings improvements to dark mode: It has been almost a year since we have been hearing about WhatsApp's plans of implementing dark mode in its Android and iOS based app. A new report by WABetaInfo says that the company has made improvements to the layout of the System Event bubble which announces your messages and calls are end-to-end encrypted. This layout uses a Yellow colour for text. Earlier, the text was displayed in Green.

In addition to that, WhatsApp has also updated the text color for the bubble that announces when a user is chatting with a business. The text in the bubble is now available in Green colour.

Animated Stickers are coming to WhatsApp: The company is planning to bring animated stickers to its Android app. According to a report by WABetaInfo, all sticker packs have received a server side update. While it remains unclear what changes this update will bring to the stickers, the blog site suggests that it sets grounds for the developers to design animated stickers.

WhatsApp rolls out version 2.20.10 on iPhones: WhatsApp, in the past week, rolled out version 2.20.10 of the app to iPhone users. The update brought a bunch of interesting features to the app. Take a peek:

When you enable Low Data Mode on your iPhone, WhatsApp will automatically disable media auto-downloads in the app.

The update brings call waiting support to the app. Now, users will get an option to accept an incoming call while they are on another call.

As a part of the group privacy settings, group admins will now have the option of sending a private invite to a WhatsApp user.

Lastly, VoiceOver mode will allow users to send messages directly from the Braille keyboard.

Facebook ditches plans to bring ads to WhatsApp: Facebook last year said that it would introduce ads in WhatsApp's Status feature. However, a report by The Wall Street Journal says that the company has halted its plans of introducing ads in the app. It has disbanded the team working on implementing this feature. It has also removed the code from the app. The company is now focusing on "building out money-making features allowing businesses to communicate with customers and better manage those interactions," the report said.

WhatsApp registers over 5 billion installs on Google Play Store: WhatsApp has become the second non-Google app to register over five billion installs on the Google Play Store. Facebook achieved this mark last year and now WhatsApp has joined the elite list. It is worth noting that this number includes pre-installed copies as well as the Play Store downloads.