WhatsApp working on music sharing, public groups and large emoji for iOS

After Apple’s big iMessage announcement at WWDC, Facebook-owned WhatsApp certainly does not want to remain behind when it comes to features. The buzz around the web now points to the WhatsApp team working on new features, including the ability to share music, which will be a first for its iOS app. The news comes from a German website called Macerkopf who has spilled the beans about the new features. The features seems to have appeared on a beta version of the app that has been built for iOS, which is where the Apple Music sharing seems to step in. [caption id=“attachment_322444” align=“aligncenter” width=“400”]  Image: Macerkopf[/caption] While the screenshots show the ability to share music that is stored locally on an iPhone, the source also mentions that WhatsApp has an option that will let users share tunes from Apple Music as well. Users will even be able to see album art appear in their chat threads along with a music icon that can be tapped to play the music. Additionally, iOS users of the widely-popular messaging app will get some much-awaited features like public groups, mentions and larger emoji.  Admins of these public groups will simply share a link for users to join these groups and at the same time will also be able to withdraw that very link to close the chat. Mentions, similar to Twitter, will let users tag others in a chat message. Lastly, larger icons will let users express themselves better and may be an alternative to stickers since WhatsApp has yet to move beyond the currently available emojis. While WhatsApp is said to be working on the above mentioned features, there’s really no way to tell when the same will be made available to the public. Moreover, its competitor Telegram already has some of the above mentioned features for a long time now. WhatsApp in India seems to stuck in another mess lately. A judge in India has now said that women should be careful while putting up their WhatsApp profile image. Justice S Vaidyanathan said that cyber crimes via WhatsApp Messenger are increasing by the day and added, “Therefore, WhatsApp users, especially women, need to be more careful before placing a picture as their profile photo and sharing their photos with friends or other WhatsApp groups, as prevention is better than cure.”