WhatsApp rolls out new favourite feature for calls and chats, here’s how you can use it

WhatsApp has rolled out a new ‘favourites’ feature to help users in keeping important contacts on top in chats and calls.

WhatsApp's new 'favourites' feature enables users to quickly access important contacts in chats and calls. (Pexels)

WhatsApp is one of the most used modes of communication in the day-to-day lives of billions around the globe. To make the conversations more accessible and secure, the instant messaging platform keeps launching new features. Meta owned messaging platform has now introduced a new feature called ‘favourites' that allows users to get easy access to some contacts. This update comes a few weeks after the launch of Context Cards for enhancing the security in cases when users are added to unfamiliar group chats. 

“Starting today, you can quickly find the people and groups that matter most at the top of your calls tab and as a filter for your chats. Whether it's your family group chat or your best friend, your ‘favourites' will be the same across your chats and calls, so you can speed dial them from your calls tab too," the company shared in a blog post on Tuesday. 

The favourite contacts appear at the top of the list on WhatsApp chats and calls. This enables users to filter the most contacted people and prioritise important messages and calls. This helps in better organisation of chats as messages from frequently contacted individuals appear on top. 

This feature can be applied to any saved contact and it can be moved in the favourites category. The instant messaging platform has added the favourites filter beside the All, Unread and Groups filters. 

Steps to use favourites feature

Here are the simple steps that can be taken to set contacts as favourites:

Open WhatsApp app and click on the favourites filter available on top of the chats tab. 

Select the contacts and groups which you want to mark as favourites. Click the favourites button to see the selected contacts. 

For setting contacts as favourites on WhatsApp Calls tab, click on the ‘Add favourites' filter and add your preferred contacts. 

Go to settings, tap on favourites option and click add to favourites to manage contacts set as favourites. This allows you to make changes and reorder the favourite contacts. 

Many users have already started using this new feature while it is going to be available for all users in the coming weeks. It is expected to receive a positive response from users as this would save the time spent on finding important calls and messages. 

Features in testing phase 

Apart from the launch of favourites, there are speculations about WhatsApp testing more new features such as live translation for messages, transcription for voice chats and video note for camera user interface (UI). As these features are in testing phase, these can only be availed by beta testers under Google Play Beta program. 

WhatsApp is expected to finish testing and roll out these features soon.