The latest beta releases of WhatsApp reveal the platform’s continued work on introducing polls to users, along with the introduction of quick reacts to messages.
Polls have previously been discussed on this tech blog, with a number of articles from our calling the feature an honest and simple improvement to the WhatsApp interface; and a rather useful one at that too. Polls are incredibly useful forms of pooling opinions, which is a sorely needed feature on a platform that’s entirely geared around groups of individuals coexisting. Want to schedule a meeting with coworkers? Set up a poll instead of scrolling through a hundred messages to find the ones with their actual ins and outs. Can’t decide on a date to hang out with friends? Set up a poll and (mostly) avoid the incessant debating that’ll haunt your phone for at least a day or two. Polls being such a potentially useful feature is also apparently the reason that WhatsApp keeps delaying their release onto the platform. 2.2216.2 version is perhaps the third beta release in a row where we’ve seen tweaks being made to polls without anything close to a release date in sight. As of yet, unlike polls on Facebook and Instagram, no one including the original poll creator themselves can see which individuals voted for which options. Maybe that’s soon to change in upcoming test releases.
The other feature we’ll be grappling with today goes by the name of Quick Reactions. Word through the grapevine had it that WhatsApp was looking to test the waters with reactions to messages quite a while ago, perhaps even a few months in advance. While WhatsApp ultimately unveiled message reacts a month or two back, with the feature itself strongly resembling message reacts in Instagram DMs, the platform’s apparently interested in expanding reactions further. Zoom camera onto Quick Reactions, which are also very similar to an Instagram feature. These allow users to react to stories on WhatsApp, sending in a quick emoji to demonstrate how one’s feeling about a certain post. Instagram has had a version of this very feature around for quite a while now, but I guess it isn’t cheating if everyone’s owned by the same parent company, right?
Read next: Along with removing the numbers of dislikes YouTube tests hiding the like counter as well
Polls have previously been discussed on this tech blog, with a number of articles from our calling the feature an honest and simple improvement to the WhatsApp interface; and a rather useful one at that too. Polls are incredibly useful forms of pooling opinions, which is a sorely needed feature on a platform that’s entirely geared around groups of individuals coexisting. Want to schedule a meeting with coworkers? Set up a poll instead of scrolling through a hundred messages to find the ones with their actual ins and outs. Can’t decide on a date to hang out with friends? Set up a poll and (mostly) avoid the incessant debating that’ll haunt your phone for at least a day or two. Polls being such a potentially useful feature is also apparently the reason that WhatsApp keeps delaying their release onto the platform. 2.2216.2 version is perhaps the third beta release in a row where we’ve seen tweaks being made to polls without anything close to a release date in sight. As of yet, unlike polls on Facebook and Instagram, no one including the original poll creator themselves can see which individuals voted for which options. Maybe that’s soon to change in upcoming test releases.
The other feature we’ll be grappling with today goes by the name of Quick Reactions. Word through the grapevine had it that WhatsApp was looking to test the waters with reactions to messages quite a while ago, perhaps even a few months in advance. While WhatsApp ultimately unveiled message reacts a month or two back, with the feature itself strongly resembling message reacts in Instagram DMs, the platform’s apparently interested in expanding reactions further. Zoom camera onto Quick Reactions, which are also very similar to an Instagram feature. These allow users to react to stories on WhatsApp, sending in a quick emoji to demonstrate how one’s feeling about a certain post. Instagram has had a version of this very feature around for quite a while now, but I guess it isn’t cheating if everyone’s owned by the same parent company, right?
Read next: Along with removing the numbers of dislikes YouTube tests hiding the like counter as well
