WhatsApp Global Voice Message Player coming soon to your phone

WhatsApp Global Voice Message Player: WABetaInfo reports that this feature will allow users to listen to voice messages even when they leave the chat.

WhatsApp Global Voice Message Player: Users can continue sending messages to other contacts while they are listening to the voice message. (Areif Munandar/Pixabay )

WhatsApp, a few months back, rolled out the ability to play voice messages at different playback speeds. This feature was rolled out on both WhatsApp's Android and iOS-based apps. Now, word is that the Facebook-owned messaging app is working on improving its voice messages further. As per the reports, WhatsApp has started working on a new feature called Global Voice Message Player.

WABetaInfo reports that WhatsApp's upcoming Global Voice Message Player feature will allow users to listen to voice messages even when they leave the chat window with that particular contact. The blog site says that the feature has been named so because it's pinned to the top of the application and that it is always visible when WhatsApp users open any section of the app. The blog site also said that it is also possible to pause and dismiss the voice message at any time.

In practice, WhatsApp's upcoming Global Voice Message Player feature will be like the picture-in-picture feature for playing videos within the app. The only difference is that the Global Voice Message Player feature can be pinned within WhatsApp's interface.

As far as utility is concerned, WhatsApp's upcoming Global Voice Message Player feature will be useful when users receive a long voice message, in which case, they can continue sending messages to other contacts while they are listening to the voice message.

Notably, this feature is still in the development phase for iOS. But word is that WhatsApp is also planning to introduce the same feature on WhatsApp beta for Android.

Apart from Global Voice Message Player, WhatsApp is also working on two new features that are aimed at making disappearing messages a tad bit smarter. First of all, WhatsApp is planning to add more time duration to manage its disappearing messages. As of now, WhatsApp's disappearing messages vanish automatically after seven days. Now, the blog site reports that WhatsApp is working on a tweak that will enable users to pick different duration including 24 hours, 90 days and 7 days as an expiration period for its disappearing messages.

In addition to this, users will also be able to set a default message timer for new chats. The blog site says that if you enable “Default Message Timer” within WhatsApp Privacy Settings, all new chats will start with the disappearing messages option enabled for the selected duration. These new features are being rolled out on WhatsApp beta for iOS, WhatsApp Business beta for iOS, and they will be available on WhatsApp beta for Android soon.