WhatsApp recently rolled out a digital payment option to select Android and iOS users in India. While the option does add another crown jewel to app’s increasing arsenal of features, it seems pretty redundant in light of the banking apps that provide similar options along with dozens of other features.
Now let’s roll back a couple of months and go back to the time when the Facebook-owned social messaging app released a feature that was both relevant and useful. We’re talking about ‘delete for everyone‘ feature. The feature was welcome all around the globe and was hailed as a blessing in disguise– for obvious reasons!
Interestingly, there was a funny angle to the entire story. Sent an awkward message to your “ex” in the middle of the night? Delete. Accidentally sent an angry rant to your boss over your latest discord? Delete. Drunk texted your best friend that her boyfriend is cheating on her? Delete. The feature instantly became the magic wand that could fix any conversation. On the flipside, WhatsApp hasn’t been creative enough since then.
So, here are some features that WhatsApp should introduce:
a) Scheduled messages
How many times have you forgotten to wish your spouse on your anniversary? How many times have you forgotten to remind your friends of a meeting planned weeks ago? If it’s true for you then ‘scheduled messages’ is the only feature that can help. The company will help save so many lives (read: relationships) if it ever introduces this feature.
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b) Auto-send birthday wishes
For most people, remembering birthdays is a task they simply can’t accomplish. And no matter how many reminders they set, they usually end up wishing the person too late (if not forgetting to wish completely). If only there was a feature that would send automated birthday wishes to all your WhatsApp contacts on their birthdays.
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c) Auto-send customised message in personal chat
People can be funny (and a bit annoying) at times. And most people have that one relative (or a friend) who would unfailingly send them good morning messages every day. While it might seem sweet initially, it gets pesky after a point. So here’s another feature that we would want WhatsApp to introduce– a customised message (text with a smiley maybe?) to be sent to all such contacts whenever you receive a message from them. Helpful– ain’t it?
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d) Auto-send customised message in group chat
In the world of connectivity and communication, we have friends and then we have acquaintances. While our friends’ circle might have limited names, the list of our acquaintances is infinitely long– which often accounts for equally long group chats on WhatsApp.
Barring the times when you are actually having a conversation, the ‘200 messages’ blinker on your smartphone screen is not a happy sight for anyone. What if there was a feature that would send customised messages (a smiley or a thumbs up) at regular intervals just to make it seem like you are active in the group?
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e) Invisible contact
They say, ‘no reaction is also a reaction’– but some people just don’t get it. You may ignore all their messages but that doesn’t stop them from texting you repeatedly. For the people whom you cannot block, WhatsApp should have a feature (or a setting) that would make you invisible in their WhatsApp contact list.
