WhatsApp is currently working on a string of new features for its messaging platform. While previous reports asserted that WhatsApp will soon roll out the picture-in-picture (PiP) mode as well as introduce Stickers, the Facebook-owned platform is now reported to be working on new features — Vacation mode and Silent mode for better chatting experience.
According to a report by Wabetainfo, WhatsApp is working on a Vacation mode feature, that will help improve the archived chat experience. Currently, when you archive a chat, WhatsApp automatically unarchives it once a new message is received from the same chat. With the new vacation mode feature, your archived chats will not appear on your WhatsApp window and will remain as they are, even if a new message appears. This means that if one wants to read the new message, they will have to open the chat manually from the archived chats.
"Enabling Vacation Mode, muted archived chats won’t be unarchived until you will unmute or unarchive them, so this is something users are asking since WhatsApp has added the Archive Chat feature," the report stated. The cited source says that this feature is currently under development and WhatsApp will soon introduce this feature to both iOS and Andriod (in future).
Additionally, there's also a silent mode feature, that hides the app badge for muted chats. It is already available and active by default. This new feature hides a notification count on the WhatsApp's app icon for chats in mute mode. Currently, users who haven't received the update yet, they can still see the notification count/dots for chats in mute mode too.
Moving ahead, WhatsApp is also planning to add an account linking support for social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook. The Linked Accounts option will be located under your Profile Settings. The cited source stated that "the Linked Accounts feature will help the user to recover the password. It will allow to automatically share your status updates in Instagram (that’s very useful for Businesses)."
Besides, WhatsApp has also modified its delete for everyone feature, which is expected to be rolled out in the coming days. With the new update, if a recipient does not receive the notification regarding the 'delete request' or the 'revoke request' in 13 hours, 8 minutes, and 16 seconds, one will not be able to delete the sent message.