WhatsApp — Features for the Future
You are having a fun conversation with your friends on WhatsApp and randomly two friends start talking in a language you don’t understand. Wouldn’t you feel left out?
Or imagine yourself, receiving an important message from someone, but that gets lost within other not-so-relevant chats. Isn’t that scary?
Or consider yourself in a situation where a “friends forever” group you had made in 2016, has been inactive forever. Wouldn’t it be nice if WhatsApp helped you rekindle such conversations?
Here are some features that we are sure the Product team at WhatsApp would have thought through, however they are yet to make the cut.
Let’s revisit…
Chat Translation
WhatsApp is pervasive, and is being used even in smaller cities, towns and villages. In countries especially like India, linguistic barriers hinder online communication. Maybe WhatsApp can make life easy and drive conversations among diverse groups?
What is this feature?
The translation feature will allow users to read received messages in their own language if it has been sent in another language. The user will be given the option to turn on translation and select a preferred language.
Why hasn’t it been implemented yet?
- Non availability of high quality language models capable of handling diverse regional languages
- Complexity and memory constraints while implementing client side translations
Why should it be implemented?
- Promote communication among diverse user groups speaking regional languages
- Useful for WhatsApp business users who wish to expand by connecting with people from diverse territories
Chat Folders
We connect with a variety of people over WhatsApp — colleagues, friends, family etc. With a large influx of messages, sometimes it becomes difficult to segregate the urgent from the casual messages. This problem could be solved by using Folders.
What is this feature?
Chat folders can be utilised to group related chats. Users can create folders with custom names and add several chats or groups into it. These chats can then be accessed by opening the corresponding folders.
Why hasn’t it been implemented yet?
- Folders might lead to deviation from the classic chat experience — seeing a list of people and chats as you open WhatsApp. This is an experience most users are very familiar with and deviations may lead to loss of the WhatsApp feel
- Complexity/unfamiliarity in navigating folder UI for seasoned users
Why should it be implemented?
- Optimises chat lookup as users can group related chats under aptly named folders
- Allows users to organise different aspects of their life (personal, work, etc) and maintain balance between them
Inactive Group Reactivation
What can be done with groups that have been inactive for years? WhatsApp’s KPI is to connect people and drive conversations. We could leverage old groups that were once active and are now dormant and attempt to restart interactions amongst the participants.
What is this feature?
This feature will automatically send a message in inactive groups after a predefined period, prompting users to restart conversation in the chat. It also attempts to solve the issue of inactive group buildup in user’s chats as they may choose to exit at this point.
Why hasn’t it been implemented yet?
It might be annoying to receive reminders for a long-forgotten chat especially if its purpose has been served
Why should it be implemented?
- This feature can increase user engagement by driving conversations in now inactive groups
- Opportunity to delight users by breaking the ice and restarting conversations in dormant groups
We hope to see these features in WhatsApp’s near future!
Written by — Akhil Powar, Vaishnavi Pendke, R Vivek Narayanan