WHATSAPP has relaunched its oldest feature – and it should make the texting app less annoying.
We take it for granted now, but WhatsApp wasn’t always the messaging app that we know and love.
Back in 2009, it was more of a status-sharing site that let pals know what you were up to.
This very early About system was WhatsApp’s first feature, but it’s often forgotten about.
Now WhatsApp has relaunched the feature to make it more visible and useful, with some big advantages for anyone that uses it.
“For those of you that have used WhatsApp from the very start, you’ll remember About was our first feature,” Meta-owned WhatsApp said.
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“Even before we brought the world private and secure messaging, we made it simple for you to quickly share what’s up in your life.
“Today we’re reintroducing and improving About, making it more visible, timely, and easier to use.”
WhatsApp has changed it so that the About status will now be plainly visible at the top of your individual chats.
And it will also appear on your profile if someone looks at that directly.
It’ll be possible to reply directly to a person’s About.
And they’ll expire after a day, but you can choose to have it vanish faster or carry on.
You’ll just need to go into Settings then tap on ‘Set About’ to choose the timer.
It solves a common problem: WhatsApp’s lack of Do Not Disturb mode.
You can mute chats already, but there’s no easy way to flag to everyone that you’re busy.
But you could set your About to show your current status, which might prompt would-be texters to leave you alone until you’re free.
“For those days when you’re free one minute but busy the next – About can tell others why you can’t talk,” WhatsApp said.
“Or what you do want to talk about with just an emoji and a short phrase.”
You can also change who you want to see your About.
For instance, you can have it limited to be viewable only by your contacts – or you can have it more widely visibile.
WhatsApp said that the new feature will start rolling out “on mobile starting this week”.
So don’t panic if you don’t see it right away – it might take a few days to appear on your own phone.
That’s not the only change coming to WhatsApp either.
WhatsApp is also working on the ability for you to easily switch between multiple WhatsApp accounts.
WHAT’S NEW IN WHATSAPP?
Here are some of the new features that WhatsApp says it has added in 2025…
- Live and Motion Photos
- New chat themes with Meta AI
- New backgrounds with Meta AI
- New sticker packs (Fearless Bird, School Days, Vacation)
- Easier group search
- Document scanning on Android
Picture Credit: WhatsApp
On top of that, WhatsApp is building a feature to let you choose usernames.
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This would allow you to chat with other people on WhatsApp without having to share your phone number.
Sadly neither of those features have landed on WhatsApp properly yet, but they have been spotted in test versions of the app.
