These New Whatsapp Features Will Make Your Video Calls a Lot More Fun

Like other popular apps, WhatsApp will be adding a series of fun and much-anticipated features to enrich and brighten up your video calls. You won't be able to live without them!

WhatsApp is a great app: it makes it easy to stay in touch with family, friends, or colleagues by exchanging text messages, photos, videos, voice recordings, and more. But it also lets you chat live in audio, just like on the phone, and in video, thanks to video calls, for two or more people. It's practical for seeing loved ones at a special event or on vacation when they're at a distance.

However, despite its popularity—two billion users worldwide!—WhatsApp is not doing as well as its competitors in this area. The app lacks a function found in Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, for example, and which has made TikTok and Snapchat so successful: filters. These are simply visual effects, generally in augmented reality, which can be used to correct defects on a face using virtual makeup, or even to integrate zany elements such as bunny ears, clown noses, stars, and so on.

But this gap is about to be filled! The experts spotted augmented reality effects and filters for video calls in a beta version of the app. Clearly, this fun and much-anticipated feature should be available to everyone in a future WhatsApp update!

In concrete terms, you'll be able to use a touch-up tool to smooth out your skin, access a low-light mode to improve visibility in dimly lit environments and apply filters, just as you can on Instagram. What's more, you'll be able to take advantage of a tool to change the background during calls, similar to what Microsoft Teams and Google Meet offer. This will be particularly useful for group videoconferences, as you'll be able to enjoy a little more privacy and personalize your environment. This feature will subsequently be available on the computer version of WhatsApp.

At the same time, WhatsApp plans to introduce other effects to make video calls more entertaining and attractive, adding a playful touch to your conversations. For example, you'll be able to use an avatar instead of your camera, which can be useful for maintaining anonymity or simply not showing your face if you're not at your best. Nothing very original, but all these additions are more than welcome. Better late than never!