WhatsApp’s next big features after dark mode: Animated stickers, delete messages, and more

WhatsApp is planning to roll out three new features to its Android beta app, which includes Animated Stickers, Delete Messages, Account Transfer features.

WhatsApp is bringing three new features to its Android app. (HT Web)

WhatsApp recently rolled out Dark Theme on its Android beta app. Now, the word is that the company is planning to bring a bunch of other features to its Android app soon.

According to a report by WABetaInfo, the company is planning to roll out three new features to its Android beta app, which includes Animated Stickers, Delete Messages, Account Transfer features.

Let's start with the animated stickers feature.

The blog site recently reported that WhatsApp was planning to bring support for Facebook-like animated stickers on its app. Now a new report details the improvements that the company is making to this feature. As per the report, the company has added a new play icon next to the name of the sticker pack to differentiate the animated stickers from the non-animated ones.

In addition to this, it is refining details which includes the time when a sticker pack is animated. This new sticker page is being developed to support both the light and the dark themes, indicating that the feature would be rolled out to users soon. That said, there is no formal timeline available as to when this feature will be rolled out to users.

WhatsApp is working on an animated stickers feature. (WABetaInfo)

WhatsApp is working on an animated stickers feature. (WABetaInfo)

WhatsApp is also working on a new Delete Messages feature.

Last year, the blog reported that WhatsApp was working on a delete messages, or a disappearing messages, feature, similar to Telegram's self destruct timer, that would allow users to send messages that disappear after a preset period of time. Now, the company has made some improvements to this feature.WhatsApp has added an option that tells users about the state of the feature. Simply said, the improvement informs the user if the feature is turned off or if a self-destruct timer has been set. If a user has set a timer, it informs the user about the duration of the timer, such as one hour or one day.

The blog notes that "WhatsApp is still working on the feature (and it requires a lot of time to be publicly released)" and that it will be available in future.

Lastly, the company is also planning to bring a new Account Transfer feature to the app.

WhatsApp, last year, rolled out a feature on its iOS-based app that allows iPhone users to register a WhatsApp account on a new iPhone without asking for credentials. Now, the company is planning to bring a similar feature to its Android app.

As per the blog site, the feature users official Google APIs to allow users to transfer their WhatsApp data to another device without registering again. However, the blog site notes that this feature is still in the initial stages of development at the moment and that there aren't other details available yet.