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WhatsApp message threads feature spotted in development

A new WhatsApp message threads feature appears to be on the way, after it was discovered in an app beta.

It follows a flurry of new features launched last month, comprising colorful chat themes, linked social media accounts, and ChatGPT support extending to images and voice messages …

WABetaInfo spotted the upcoming feature.

We discovered that WhatsApp is working on a feature to organize message replies into threaded conversations […]

Once a user replies to a quoted message, the thread will remain connected to the original message, ensuring that all responses stay organized.

Through this feature, instead of scrolling through a long list of individual replies, users will be able to follow and view all the related responses in a dedicated thread, keeping the conversation structured and easy to follow. In group chats, where discussions can quickly become overwhelming, this organization will save users from the effort of scrolling through the entire chat history to find one specific response, as they can easily navigate through threads and focus on relevant conversations without losing context.

As the site notes, this will make it very much easier in busy group chats to reply to a specific topic. Although you can currently tap on any quoted message to jump back up the thread to the original post, it can be hard to get an overview of what has been said on a topic. Being able to view a complete thread in isolation will certainly be a major improvement.

There’s no telling as yet when the feature will launch. The company typically tests things first in the Android app – where this was spotted – before rolling it out to the iOS app.

Screengrabs: WABetaInfo

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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