WhatsApp, one of the most popular instant messaging services, is bringing another handy feature to its users: playing voice messages in the background. The latest update is only available on IOS devices though – at least for now.
The Update
The latest feature allows you to play voice messages in the background, meaning you don’t have to stay in the chat to listen to the message, as was the case until now. Basically, you can keep texting other people without pausing your messages from another chat. Talk about multitasking!
This new feature has been in testing for a while. It first became available to beta testers last month. It was then that some screenshots from the beta test showing the layout of the global voice message player on Apple devices were leaked. The global player is located on the top of the screen and features a progress bar with the name of the contact the message is from. There is also an option to play or pause, and of course, close the voice message.
The update is rather convenient for anyone who, like us, gets bored by long audio messages and doesn’t want to stay in the chat only to listen to the entire message. Being able to play the messages in the background while you go to other threads in WhatsApp may be a small update, but it’s an improvement nonetheless.
This handy feature is currently available on Apple’s devices, more precisely, the version 22.4.75 of WhatsApp for iPhone. We have gotten no information on when we can expect it on Android devices though.
Previous Improvements
WhatsApp has been working on improving its voice note feature for a while now. Since last month, the desktop WhatsApp version has featured a global voice message player which shows up on the bottom of the chat lists.
The last significant improvement on WhatsApp voice messages for iOS was replacing the stop button with a pause/resume button. This enabled the users to pause and resume the recording of their voice messages.
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