WhatsApp Release Notes

Group chats on WhatsApp

Group chats on WhatsApp make it easy to stay connected with the people in your life no matter what device they use. Today, we’re introducing new features that make keeping up with conversations and expressing yourself in group chats even easier.

Member tags

Now, you can give yourself a customizable tag in each of your group chats that tells the group what your role is. Member tags can be especially useful in larger chats where you might not know everyone like clubs, parent groups, or community associations. For instance, you can be “Anna’s Dad” in one group and “Goalkeeper” in another.

Text stickers

For the messages you want to really stand out, you can now turn any word into a sticker by typing your text into Sticker Search. You can also add newly created stickers directly to your sticker packs instead of having to send them in a chat first.

Event reminders

Now, when you create and send an event in your group chat, you can set custom reminders for your invitees. These reminders help everyone remember to commute to the party you’re hosting or hop on the call at the right time, depending on the event type.

These new updates join other features we’ve launched over the years to bring groups closer together, like sharing large files up to 2GB, HD media, screen sharing, voice chats, and more.

WhatsApp for Apple Watch launch

Today, we’re launching a new WhatsApp app for Apple Watch, so you can stay on top of your WhatsApp chats without pulling out your iPhone.

The new WhatsApp app will support many of our most-requested features:

• Call notifications: You can see who’s calling without looking at your iPhone.
• Full messages: You can read full WhatsApp messages on Apple Watch — even long messages are visible directly from your wrist.
• Written messages: You can write out and send messages directly from your watch.
• Voice messages: You can record and send voice messages.
• Reactions: You can send quick emoji reactions to messages you receive.
• A great media experience: You’ll see clearer images and stickers on your Apple Watch.
• Chat history: You can see more of your chat history on screen when reading messages.

As always, your personal messages and calls remain private with end-to-end encryption.

WhatsApp for Apple Watch will be available for any Apple Watch Series 4 or later running watchOS 10 or later.

This launch is just the start, and we’ll keep improving WhatsApp for Apple Watch based on your feedback.

Takeaways

• We’re introducing passkey-encrypted chat backups, so it’s easier than ever before to encrypt your backups using your fingerprint, face, or screen lock code.
• WhatsApp was the first private messaging service to launch end-to-end encrypted backups over four years ago, and we’ll continue to find ways to prioritize your security.

We know your chats on WhatsApp carry some of your most important memories, which is why WhatsApp was the first private messaging app to offer end-to-end encryption for your chat backups. Now, we’re making it even easier to secure your chats with passkey-enabled encryption.

Passkeys will allow you to use your fingerprint, face, or screen lock code to end-to-end encrypt your chat backups, so you no longer have to memorize a password or a 64-digit encryption key. You’ll be able to keep your WhatsApp chat backups safe, accessible, and private with just a tap or a glance.

We’re rolling this feature out gradually over the coming weeks and months. To get started, go to your WhatsApp settings and select Chats. Tap Chat backup, then End-to-end encrypted backup to see your options.

Over the past few months, we’ve added new features and updates to WhatsApp that make chatting and calling more convenient and fun. You can send Live and Motion photos, get creative with Meta AI in chats and video calls, search group chat names, and more.

WhatsApp is your place for private chats with family and friends. We’re always introducing new features and updates to help you better express yourself and have more engaged conversations.

Live and Motion photos:
Now you can share Live Photos (iOS) and Motion Photos (Android) that add sound and movement to the moments you capture on camera, meaning you can share richer moments with friends.

New chat themes with Meta AI:
Earlier this year we introduced chat themes as a way to customize your chats. You can now use the power of Meta AI to boost your creativity and make custom chat themes of your own. (Meta AI features may not be available to all users.)

New sticker packs:
We’ve introduced new sticker packs to make your chats more expressive and fun. Download stickers from the Fearless Bird or Vacation packs whose cute characters can sum up how you’re feeling without needing to say a word.

Easier group search:
Group chat names sometimes get so creative that they can be hard to remember. Now, just search for someone you know that’s in the group in your Chats tab, and it will display the groups you have in common.

Document scanning on Android:
Now you can scan, crop, and send documents directly from WhatsApp on Android devices (previously only available on iPhone).

New video call backgrounds with Meta AI:
Now you can use Meta AI to create unique backgrounds for your video calls to put you in your favorite surroundings or try something new. You can also add AI backgrounds when taking photos and videos directly in chats.

Stay tuned for more new updates to WhatsApp soon.

Takeaways

• We’re bringing message translations to WhatsApp so you can more easily communicate across languages.
• Translations will initially be available in six languages on Android and 19 languages on iPhone, with more to follow.

More than 3 billion people in over 180 countries use WhatsApp, and we’re always working to keep our users closely connected, no matter where they are in the world. That’s why we’re excited to bring message translations to WhatsApp, so you can more easily communicate across languages.

Now, when you want to translate a WhatsApp message to another language, you can simply long-press the message and tap Translate. Choose the language you want the message to be translated from or to, and download it to be saved for future translations. This works for 1:1 chats, groups, and Channel updates too.

Android users will also be able to choose to turn on automatic translation for an entire chat thread, so all future incoming messages in a conversation are translated as well.

Message translations were designed to protect the privacy of your chats. That’s why translations occur on your device where WhatsApp cannot see them.

We’re rolling out message translations to Android and iPhone users gradually from today, in a few select languages to start with more to follow.

For Android users, translations will initially be available in six languages: English, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, and Arabic.

For our iPhone users, the feature will launch in 19+ languages.

We hope this feature helps break down language barriers and allows users to connect more deeply.

Takeaways

• We’re rolling out new WhatsApp tools to help people spot scams and stay safe while messaging.
• We also took down over 6.8 million WhatsApp accounts linked to criminal scam centers targeting people across the internet and around the world.
• We’re sharing insights on how criminal scammers target people on many apps at once to evade detection by each service, including a scam campaign we disrupted that attempted to use our apps, mobile sms, ChatGPT, TikTok, Telegram and cryptocurrency.

Every day criminal scammers attempt to play on people’s economic anxiety to trick people with too-good-to-be-true offers and pyramid schemes to earn quick money. As part of our ongoing efforts to protect people from scams, we’re sharing updates on disrupting attempts by criminal scam centers to target people on our apps, the latest insights into how these scams work, new anti-scam tools on WhatsApp and key safety tips.

Taking Action Against Scammers

Some of the most prolific sources of scams are criminal scam centers, often fueled by forced labor and operated by organized crime primarily in Southeast Asia. In the first six months of this year, as part of our ongoing proactive work to protect people from scams, WhatsApp detected and banned over 6.8 million accounts linked to scam centers. Based on our investigative insights into the latest enforcement efforts, we proactively detected and took down accounts before scam centers were able to operationalize them.

How Scammers Operate

These scam centers typically run many scam campaigns at once – from cryptocurrency investments to pyramid schemes. There is always a catch and it should be a red flag for everyone: you have to pay upfront to get promised returns or earnings.

Scams may start with a text message or on a dating app, then move to social media, private messaging apps and ultimately payment or crypto platforms. In the course of just one scam, they often try to cycle people through many different platforms to ensure that any one service has only a limited view into the entire scam, making it more challenging to detect.

Working with Others to Protect People

As an example, recently WhatsApp, Meta and our peers at OpenAI disrupted scams efforts which we were able to link to a criminal scam center in Cambodia. These attempts ranged from offering payments for fake likes to enlisting others into a rent-a-scooter pyramid scheme, or luring people to invest in cryptocurrency. As OpenAI reported, the scammers used ChatGPT to generate the initial text message containing a link to a WhatsApp chat, and then quickly directed the target to Telegram where they were assigned a task of liking videos on TikTok. The scammers attempted to build trust in their scheme by sharing how much the target has already ‘earned’ in theory, before asking them to deposit money into a crypto account as the next task.

How do you recognize these scams and stay safe?

We partnered with internet safety expert and ethical hacker Rachel Tobac to share how scammers may target people – and how to avoid them.

New WhatsApp Anti-Scam Tools

In addition to disrupting scam centers, WhatsApp is constantly rolling out new features to help protect people on our apps from known scam tactics at scale.

• Group messaging: We’re launching a new safety overview that we’ll show you when someone who is not in your contacts adds you to a new WhatsApp group you may not recognize. It will include key information about the group and tips to stay safe. From there, you can exit the group without ever having to look at the chat. And if you think you might recognize the group after seeing the safety overview, you can choose to see the chat for more context. Regardless, notifications from the group will be silenced until you mark that you want to stay.
• Individual messaging: Additionally, scammers may attempt to first initiate contact with you elsewhere on the internet before asking to message them on private messengers like WhatsApp. To protect against this tactic, we continue to test new approaches to alerting people to pause before engaging. For example, we’re exploring ways to caution you when you start a chat with someone not in your contacts by showing you additional context about who you’re messaging so you can make an informed decision.

Tips to Avoid Scams in Private Messaging

We’ve all been there: someone you don’t know attempting to message you, or add you to a group chat, promising low-risk investment opportunities or easy money, or saying you have an unpaid bill that’s overdue. The reality is, these are often scammers trying to prey on people’s kindness, trust and willingness to help – or, their fears that they could be in trouble if they don’t send money fast.

We encourage you to pause, question, and verify, before responding to a suspicious or unusual message, especially if it’s from a number you don’t know promising fast money:

• PAUSE: Take time before you respond. Think about whether this is a number you recognize, or whether it reads like a legitimate ask.
• QUESTION: Does this request make sense? Does it seem too good to be true? Are they asking you to send money, gift cards or PIN codes? Are they offering unrealistically high pay for a few hours of work? Are they rushing you into taking action? These might be signs of a scam.
• VERIFY: If they’re claiming to be a friend or family member, make sure that they are who they say they are by contacting that friend directly – ideally using another method of communication. For example, if they messaged you on WhatsApp, call them on their phone – or if they sent you an SMS, give them a WhatsApp call using the phone number you know is theirs.

Updates tab and new features

Today we’re introducing new features in WhatsApp’s Updates tab, which is home to both Channels and Status. We’ve been talking for years about how to build a business on WhatsApp in a way that doesn’t interrupt personal chats, and we believe the Updates tab is the right place to introduce that.

The Updates tab is where you discover something new on WhatsApp – whether that’s a friend’s status from their wedding day or a creator’s entertaining channel – and it’s now used by 1.5 billion people per day globally. Now the Updates tab is going to be able to help Channel admins, organizations and businesses build and grow.

We’re going to do this in three ways:

• Channel subscriptions: You’ll be able to support your favorite channel, such as your favorite news network, by subscribing to receive exclusive updates for a monthly fee.
• Promoted Channels: We’ll help you discover new channels that might be interesting to you when you’re looking through the directory. For the first time, channel admins have a way to increase their channels’ visibility.
• Ads in Status: You’ll be able to find a new business and easily start a conversation with them about a product or service they’re promoting in Status.

Subscriptions, promotions and ads will appear only on the Updates tab, away from your personal chats. This means if you only use WhatsApp to chat with friends and loved ones, there will be no change to your experience at all.

Ads Built With Privacy in Mind

Like everything else on WhatsApp, we’ve built these features in the most privacy-oriented way possible. Your personal messages, calls, and statuses remain end-to-end encrypted, meaning no one can see or hear them. That includes Meta.

To show ads in Status or Channels you might care about, we’ll use limited info like your country or city, language, the Channels you’re following and how you interact with the ads you see.

For people that have chosen to add WhatsApp to Accounts Center, we’ll also use your ad preferences and info from across your Meta accounts.

We will never sell or share your phone number to advertisers. Your personal messages, calls, and groups you are in will not be used to determine the ads you may see.

We’ll be rolling this out slowly over the next several months, though for businesses and Channel admins looking to get started, see more information about how to do so here.

We’re adding four new WhatsApp Status features that give you new ways to express yourself through collaging, music and stickers.

WhatsApp Status is your place to let the people in your life know what’s going on, no matter where they may be. Your status is encrypted, and only those you’ve added as contacts can see it.

Whether it’s your wedding day or a recent photo that made you laugh, now you can bring even more of your personality to each status you share.

Layout

Turn up to six of your pictures into a collage, using our editing tools to lay them out exactly how you want.

More with Music

Share a song you’ve been loving as your status – or turn that song into a music sticker and add it to a separate status post, like a selfie, for extra pizzazz.

Photo Stickers

Turn a photo into a sticker and add it to your status. You’ll be able to edit it so it’s the right size and shape.

Add Yours

Choose a picture and use the Add Yours sticker to invite friends in on the conversation. When they respond to your prompt, they can share it to their status and hear what their community has to say, too.

These features are going to start rolling out soon and will be available to everyone on WhatsApp in the coming months.

Takeaways

• We’re introducing the ability to add WhatsApp to Accounts Center to easily cross post your WhatsApp Status, or log in to multiple apps with the same account.
• Adding your WhatsApp to Accounts Center is entirely optional and off by default, and you can decide to remove it at any time.
• Your personal WhatsApp messages and calls will remain end-to-end encrypted.

Since we launched Accounts Center in 2020, it’s helped people manage connected experiences across Facebook, Instagram, and Meta Quest. Today we’re excited to announce that we’ll be rolling out a new option to add WhatsApp to Accounts Center over the next few months.

Our approach for WhatsApp is simple: your account is separate from other apps and no one but you can change that. While adding your WhatsApp to Accounts Center is completely optional and off by default, it can help those who want features to work more seamlessly across apps. For example it’ll be easier to reshare updates from your WhatsApp Status to Facebook or Instagram Stories and show your friends what’s happening in your life without having to post multiple times. You’ll also be able to log back in to your WhatsApp account with a single sign-on, so you can get back into your accounts faster and with fewer steps.

Over time we’ll keep adding more features that work across our apps for people who want them, like the ability to manage your avatars, Meta AI stickers and your Imagine Me creations all in one place.

When we make these updates, we’ll explain them clearly in our apps so people can make the choice that’s best for them.

Whenever we introduce these new experiences, it’s our responsibility to help people understand how we protect their personal information. Privacy is paramount to WhatsApp and your personal messages and calls are always protected by end-to-end encryption, which means that no one else, not even WhatsApp or Meta, can read or hear them. Adding your WhatsApp to Accounts Center does not change that.

We’re excited to offer this choice to people globally, though it will take time to roll out everywhere. When available, you’ll see the option in your WhatsApp settings or it will appear when trying to take action across accounts, such as re-sharing your Status to one of our other apps.

For now, you can learn more about Accounts Center for WhatsApp check out here and here.

Takeaways

• We’re introducing camera effects, selfie stickers and quicker reactions to make WhatsApp more fun and easier to use.

Update on April 16, 2025 at 07:00AM PT:

You can now create your own sticker packs and share them directly in your chats, so your friends and family can all use your custom stickers to express themselves.

Originally published on January 14, 2025 at 8:30AM PT:

We’re always working on making WhatsApp more fun and easier to use, so we’re excited to kick off the new year with new features and design updates to improve your experience.

Camera effects: Now, when you take and send a video or photo in your chats, you can choose from 30 backgrounds, filters, and effects to transform your shots.

Selfie stickers: You can now turn your selfies into stickers. To get started, tap the create sticker icon and you’ll see the camera option to take a selfie and create your sticker. This feature is available on Android now and coming to iOS soon.

Share a sticker pack: Spotted a sticker pack you know a friend will love? Now you can share them directly in your chats.

Quicker reactions: You’ll now be able to double tap a message to react and quickly scroll through your most-used reactions.

We’re looking forward to introducing more exciting features this year, while continuing to offer private, secure messaging across the world.