Over the last few years, WhatsApp has evolved quite a bit and added more than a few new features that make our everyday messaging experience smoother. Sure, it looks the same as it always has but little tweaks like adding stickers, voice-to-text messaging, and improved voice notes have turned WhatsApp into a messaging beast.
One such update that has really made a difference has been adding the ability to preview received messages in the notifications bar of your phone. Whenever you receive a text message on WhatsApp you can read a preview of it in your system notifications without having to open the app.
Again, it was a small change but in practice, it made a big difference. WhatsApp is now running tests on extending this feature to voice notes as well as text messages.
WhatsApp notifications have been spotted in the beta, complete with a play button for incoming voice messages
WhatsApp voice notes have become one of WhatsApp’s most-loved features and recently we’ve seen them updated. The “Consecutive voice notes” update saw multiple voice notes playing automatically, one after the other, once the user has pressed play on the first message. Voice notes now look set to get another update, although this update will offer something different to consecutive play.
I leave this here.
Yes, it’s a push notification with an incoming voice message, on iOS.
It will be available in future (maybe in a major update with other features?) pic.twitter.com/eSm55GxFuO— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) July 18, 2019
A recent tweet from WABetaInfo shows a screenshot of a WhatsApp notification that includes a play button and progress bar for a voice note. The notification is from the iOS version of WhatsApp, which means that soon we could be seeing WhatsApp voice notes we can play directly from the notification get when we receive them.
Unfortunately, beyond this leaked screenshot, information on this new feature is thin. Previews of text messages only run to a certain number of characters before being capped off with an ellipsis.
The screenshots don’t show whether something similar will happen to voice notes over a certain length. Will we only be able listen to snippets from the voice note, if it is over a certain length?
Also, there is no word on whether consecutive voice notes will work from system notifications, although an educated guess would say that this might be a bridge too far.
That’s all there is with this one for now. There is nothing on whether the feature will come to Android, too. And like with all leaks from the beta, there is no guarantee the feature will even land on iOS. This is just a very early leak on a feature that likely still has some development ahead of it before it’ll land on the regular app.
It is an interesting feature, however, which could make our lives easier should it land, and that’s why we thought you’d like to hear about it now. Stick with us for all the latest WhatsApp news and rumors.
