WhatsApp is working on a feature that will allow users to forward images, videos, GIFs with the caption intact. So far, WhatsApp doesn’t allow users to forward a caption along with the media. You’ll either have to copy the caption separately and paste it or just send the media file without the text. This new feature will give the users an option to actually either send the image or video of GIF with the caption or else send it clean without any text.
A new report has now surfaced suggesting that this new feature is being rolled out to beta testers of WhatsApp. The feature was initially spotted in the development phase last week by WABetaInfo, a website that tracks new WhatsApp features being rolled out to beta testers. Now the same feature is even being rolled out to beta testers. This offers a hint that WhatsApp is working on it aggressively and it may be introduced to the stable build sooner than later.
WhatsApp Forwarded Messages
Forwarded messages on WhatsApp work in a different fashion on the current stable version of the application. The users who send forwarded media, need to add captions separately. With this new feature, forwarding texts will get easier and might even result in more users opting to forward texts. However, the forwarded tag might continue to be featured on top of the message.
In a screenshot shared by WABetaInfo, we can see that a new message box will pop up under the media you’re sharing. WhatsApp will also provide a new dismiss button that will allow the user to remove the caption completely.
The automatic removal of a caption from the media did discourage a lot of users from sharing them. The option of retaining it could spike the rate of forwarded messages. WhatsApp has had problems curbing misinformation on their platform. That’s the reason why they introduced the “Forwarded Message” tag. The new feature could also be counterproductive in this regard.
WhatsApp Outage
WhatsApp was also under fire for a massive outage on Tuesday. The app had witnessed almost a couple of hours of downtime, early in the afternoon. After the services were restored, the App informed us that this outage happened due to some technical fault. WhatsApp has not revealed any detailed information about the outage.
