WhatsApp is giving a new twist to the function of state. After extending the duration of the videos that can be uploaded in this format and change the design of this section of the application, you now want to rearrange the order in which they are displayed to the user.
As published by the specialized media WABetainfo, the application is testing a new ranking system that forgets when they have been published and will classify them according to their importance. That is, you will stop seeing them by their chronology and you will begin to do so according to a new series of criteria that will determine, in WhatsApp's opinion, the relevance they have for you. A consequence of this is that the timestamp next to the status will no longer appear as it is no longer the main criterion. And which are the new ones that will organize the list of states? WhatsApp has developed a ranking that prioritizes contacts based on four aspects:
- Frequent contact– The app prioritizes contacts that the user chats with frequently by querying the local database.
- Contact set– Pinned chats indicate a preference to prioritize certain conversations. This will also be reflected within the News tab, which includes the channels that the user follows in addition to the statuses.
- Recent messages– Contacts with whom you have recently exchanged messages will be more prominent to reflect the immediacy and relevance of the user's interactions.
- Status update about to expire– When a status update is about to expire, it is given extra importance to ensure the user can see it before it disappears.
According to the media, all the calculations that WhatsApp makes for the classification system are based on information stored locally on the deviceadding that the system works 'autonomously' and 'without external data transmission.'
As a result, the feature resets every time WhatsApp is reinstalled. The classification system can work differently on linked devicesas the chat history synced between them may not include the 'full set of data needed to prioritize contacts in the exact same way.'
The new ranking system is available to some users in the latest versions of the Android beta, without WABetainfo having specified a particular one, and in the coming weeks it will reach more.