Goal introduces small improvements in WhatsApp on a regular basis, and that leads to the user, from time to time, encountering some surprise. For example, new icons that can represent existing functions, with the intention of improving the user experience, or new ones. This is what WhatsApp users are discovering in recent days with some of the most recent developments that the platform is deploying and that have brought to the interface WhatsApp three new icons: ellipsis, microphones and sound waves.
The first two have to do with a change announced a while ago, the disappearance of the classic ‘Writing…‘and the third with an improvement in the group voice chats. We review them.
What is the ellipsis icon in WhatsApp
A feature that has been with WhatsApp users since the beginning of time—2009 when the app was launched—is the text message with the word ‘Writing…’ that appears under the name of the contact who is entering a message. It changes the way that information is communicated and also its location. The text is replaced by an animation of three ellipses that indicate the action and that appears after the last message sent in a chat. If the chat is a group chat, the profile image of the contact who is writing the message will be displayed just before the ellipsis.
However, this does not mean the definitive end of the ‘Writing…’ message. Will still appear in the chats tab when applicablealthough when accessing a conversation what we find is the animated ellipsis icon.
The new microphone icon in WhatsApp
The action of writing is not the only one that WhatsApp is modifying the way of communicating. It also happens with the recording of voice notes that, as in the previous case, the informative text message is seen replaced by a microphone icon indicating this action by a contact.
What the sound waves icon means in group chat
The third and last new icon to arrive in the application corresponds to an improvement in the function of group voice chats. The new voice chat icon is located at the top of the screen, next to the three vertical dots when you are in a group chat, and replaces the phone icon. The notice that a voice chat is starting in the group is displayed, more discreetly than before, through a notificationand offers greater flexibility since a user can join at any time, not just when the voice chat starts, as long as it is still active. Please note that this feature is only available from the user’s primary device and in groups of 33 to 256 people.