New WhatsApp features launching in South Africa

WhatsApp’s development team is currently working on several interesting new features that could launch in the coming months.
With well over 10 million local active users, WhatsApp is South Africa’s most popular messaging app.
According to a survey of Internet users aged 16 to 64 by GWI.com, the Meta Platforms-owned app was used by 93.9% of active social media users in the country by late 2023.
A major part of its popularity is the significantly lower cost of data-based messaging and its focus on security, particularly end-to-end encryption for all personal and group chats.
However, WhatsApp would not have been in its dominant position had it stagnated in terms of features, which have gradually improved the app’s user experience.
Since its launch in 2009, the app has been continuously updated to keep an edge over rivals like Telegram and Signal.
In its most recent official feature announcement, WhatsApp introduced four new features:
- Camera effects — Choose from 30 backgrounds, filters, and effects to transform videos and photos taken with the in-app camera
- Selfie stickers — Create a custom sticker of yourself by tapping the sticker, selecting create sticker and using the camera option to take a selfie
- Share a sticker pack — Share sticker packs with contacts direct within chats
- Quicker reactions — Double-tap a message to react and quickly scroll through your most-used reactions
WABetaInfo reported in recent weeks that Meta was working on several new features for WhatsApp.
The publication focuses solely on WhatsApp updates across Android, iOS, desktop, and web apps and reports on everything from the smallest design changes to major feature upgrades, with something new almost every day.
As in most corners of the tech world, some of WhatsApp’s most significant recent additions are focused on generative artificial intelligence (AI).
This trend appears set to continue for the foreseeable future, with several new AI features in the pipeline.
For example, WABetaInfo has uncovered a new dedicated AI tab is currently under development. It will include the ability for users to create customised AI chatbots.
Users will be able to personalise a chatbot by answering questions like what their AI chatbot should do and what makes it unique. WhatsApp will tailor the chatbot’s behaviour and interactions to align with the user’s preferences.
The screenshots below show previews of the dedicated AI tab and custom AI chatbot creation tool.

The second major feature in the works for WhatsApp could be particularly useful in a multilingual country like South Africa.
According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is developing in-app message and channel update translations.
The feature will allow users to set whether incoming and outgoing chat messages should automatically be translated into specific languages.
The translations will be processed locally and offline thanks to downloadable language packs, reducing mobile data consumption in the long run.
The initial language packs will be English, Arabic, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, and Hindi, although more languages are expected in future updates.
Other features currently in beta or under development for WhatsApp include:
- Creating and sending events in individual chats, similar to the current feature for group chats
- The option to add photos to poll options
- The addition of website icons of favicons alongside links to that website, such as for a news article
- Adding messages to any forwarded content, currently in beta on Android
- An in-app call dialler for directly typing and calling unsaved phone numbers on iOS, a feature already available on Android