WhatsApp likely to get an Instagram-like ‘Close Friends’ feature

The instant messaging platform, WhatsApp, is reportedly working on an Instagram-like close friends feature. This feature will allow users to create a list of a selected number of people from their contacts to watch their status updates. 

According to WABetaInfo, a website that tracks WhatsApp updates, spotted the feature on the latest WhatsApp beta for Android 2.26.5.11. With a custom contact list, users will not have to manually change their privacy or sharing settings every time they post updates on the app. They can simply create a pre-set groups of people and share with them with one tap.

This upcoming feature resembles Instagram’s close friends feature that allows users to share stories and posts only with selected or trusted followers. 

The report also showcased an image of the feature that included four options for sharing status updates. Therefore, while sharing status on WhatsApp, users can choose from “My contacts,” “My contacts except,” “Only share with,” and “Close friends.”

It further states that users will have the control to add or remove people from their close friends list as per their convenience. Therefore, if the user wishes to remove some users later, they can do so at any time without notifying the removed contacts or affecting past shared updates.

At present, WhatsApp’s “Close friends” feature is under development and is expected to roll out in future updates. The feature is currently in beta and is being tested before the stable release. Therefore, WhatsApp users will have to wait a couple of weeks longer to build a custom contact list to share status updates on the platform.

Apart from this feature, WhatsApp is reportedly working on plenty of other new features such as drafts for save photo and videos, personalised profiles for channel admins, and more. Therefore, plenty of new features are planned for the upcoming WhatsApp update.