WhatsApp may soon discontinue the ability to save someone else's profile picture

WhatsApp is reportedly working on a few new features including improvements to the layout of the album, change in audio format, discontinuing the ability to save some other user’s profile picture, and some general improvements to the app. These features, as reported by  WABetaInfo, are part of the WhatsApp beta for iOS v2.19.60.26 update that was submitted through Apple’s TestFlight Beta Program. You can also join the beta program to get early access to the features. Currently, these features are being tested and are expected to officially rollout to all iOS users in the next update. Their availability for Android users is currently unknown.

Soon, no one will be able to save your WhatsApp profile picture

A feature we wonder why existed in the first place, which allowed WhatsApp users to save and export profile pictures of other users, will reportedly soon be discontinued. Per the new iOS beta update, WhatsApp will soon remove the ability to copy, save and download profile picture of any other user in your contacts. This feature was rolled out to Android in the previous stable build. Notably, though, the restriction is not being added to the group chats yet. Also, if we have to talk about the way-arounds, WhatsApp does not restrict screenshots of the profile pictures, which means, if someone wants to get your profile pictures, they may not be able to save it, but they can still take a screenshot of your picture. [caption id=“attachment_5481551” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”]  A WhatsApp representative displays key chains with the logo of WhatsApp. Image: Reuters[/caption]

Album improvement on WhatsApp

The WhatsApp iOS beta version is also testing an improvement to the image album within the chat, which will now show the total size of the album and the number of media files in it before you download it. [caption id=“attachment_6731461” align=“alignnone” width=“768”]  Image: WABetaInfo[/caption] As of now, when someone sends you a bunch of images together, WhatsApp bundles them to show it like an album, with a download icon on top, which automatically downloads all the media files at once. However, per the change, iOS users will soon see the total size of the media files, and the number of images and videos in the album, so that users can decide beforehand if they want to download the full album or not.

New audio format on WhatsApp

The upcoming iOS update will reportedly also use a better media format for audio files. Currently, WhatsApp uses a format known as opus, which offers low latency and lossy audio quality. Opus is also not supported by a lot other apps. However, WhatsApp of iOS will soon use M4A audio coding format, which offers better quality and is supported by most other apps. This feature is currently only being working on for iOS and there is no news of the change happening for Android users yet. [caption id=“attachment_6731471” align=“alignnone” width=“768”]  Image: WABetaInfo[/caption]

Other improvements on WhatsApp

There are a bunch of other smaller improvements coming to WhatsApp for iOS as well, which have not been detailed too well in the WABetaInfo report yet. Apparently, there will be some improvements to streaming videos you haven’t downloaded yet, and to message notifications. Further, when a user deletes their WhatsApp account, the messenger will soon recommend them to change the phone number instead. While the ‘Change Number’ feature already exists, a lot of users aren’t aware of it, and they try to install and uninstall the entire app when they get a new number.

There are also some minor changes coming to the voice over feature, with updates to translations and strings. For example, “User is recording…” will soon show as “User is recording audio…”. There are also some improvements to VoIP calls, where you will see a new type of message, which “includes interactive buttons”. WhatsApp is also improving the search bar, for an upcoming new feature. The mystery around it continues!