WhatsApp this week: Animated stickers, Messenger integration and more

Facebook is planning to integrate WhatsApp in Messenger. This would enable users of the two apps to chat with one another without leaving their respective platforms.

WhatsApp rolled out a bunch of new features for its Business app, (Bloomberg)

Facebook has been steadily introducing new features on WhatsApp in the past couple of weeks. This week we saw the popular messaging app continuing this trend by introducing new features to its main app and its business app. For starters, the company widened the availability of its animated stickers feature.

In addition to that WhatsApp also introduced QR codes and catalogue sharing feature on to its main app.

So here is everything that happened in the world of WhatsApp in the past week:

Animated Stickers

Earlier this month, WhatsApp introduced animated stickers on its platform. Last week, the company widened the scope of the roll out of this feature by making this feature available to all its users globally. The newly introduced sticker pack includes Chummy Chum Chums, Rico's Sweet Life, Playful Piyomaru, Bright Days, and Moody Foodies.

Messenger's WhatsApp integration

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg last year said that he was planning to integrate Facebook and all its sister apps. This week we saw early signs of that integration. WABetaInfo pointed out that Facebook Messenger was getting a code that would allow users to interact with WhatsApp users with the two users leaving their respective apps.

Contact Shortcuts

WhatsApp is working on a feature for its iOS-based app that would enable users to share a file with their WhatsApp contacts directly from the Share Sheet. The company has also synced contacts icon with WhatsApp. This would automatically update a contact's profile image in the share sheet when it is updated in the main app.

New bubble colour

WhatsApp as per the blog site is also working on changing the colour of the chat bubble when the dark mode has been enabled. This week, the blog site gave us a glimpse of what the updated colour of the chat bubble would be like. The updated chat bubble would be slightly lighter than the chat bubble that we see in WhatsApp for iOS.

QR codes for WhatsApp for Business

WhatsApp has introduced QR codes in its business app. This feature would allow WhatsApp Business users to display their QR codes on their storefront, product packaging or receipt.

Catalogue sharing feature on WhatsApp for Business

WhatsApp has also introduced a catalogue sharing feature in its business app that would allow users to share catalogs and individual items as links on websites, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms.