Another ‘Windows Phone-first’ feature to be launched by WhatsApp

Windows Phone smartphones seem to be the new testing ground for Facebook-owned WhatsApp. Latest Windows Phone beta versions show that the company is set to overhaul its status functionality.

The new features have been discovered by the Twitter user going by the name WABetaInfo. The user has posted screenshots hinting that the social messaging app may soon allow users to mute/unmute status notifications as well as reply to them.

According to the user, the WhatsApp status reply feature is visible in the app's beta version 2.17.44+ on Windows Phone. The reply to status works in the same way as regular reply to text messages. It has been also mentioned that the feature is disabled by default. There is no word as to when this feature will hit Android or iOS users.

As for the option to to mute and unmute notifications, this too works like the reply feature and is disabled by default. This feature is seen on Windows Phone WhatsApp beta version 2.17.40 and above.

WhatsApp was recently spotted testing a new feature that lets users track group members in real time . The feature has been spotted in WhatsApp beta build by the same user. The location-tracking feature is said to be available for iOS as a part of WhatsApp beta v2.17.3.28 and on Android as part of WhatsApp beta v2.16.399. It's also mentioned that the feature is disabled by default and needs to be manually activated.

It is worth noting that activating the feature shows the user's live location to other group members as well. It is visible under the 'Show my Friends' option and can be seen in the group settings. The 'Show my Friends' option can be turned on for every group member for different time durations - 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes or indefinitely.

Recently, WhatsApp for iOS received the ability to let users 'send' WhatsApp messages in areas of poor or no internet connectivity. The feature, which has already been there in Android smartphones for some time now, has come to Apple's iOS operating system with the latest WhatsApp update.