Responding to feedback that mostly took the form of a lot of uncomplimentary memes and jokes, WhatsApp has reintroduced the persistent, text status it so rudely tore away from us a couple of weeks ago. The company had replaced it with a Snapchat Stories style image status instead. The company has now given users the option of choosing their poison, opting to let them make friends with the image-status on their own rather than its previous approach of forcing it down their throats.
Last month, WhatsApp chose to remove the text status and replace it with a Snapchat-style, disappearing, image status. The feature received a less than warm welcome though, with many berating WhatsApp for copying something off Snapchat without first making sure that it would work with its vastly different messaging platform. Last week, it was discovered that WhatsApp’s Android beta brought the old status feature back, while also segregating voice and video calling buttons.
As per TechCrunch, the text status aren’t something that will be limited to the beta and apparently, are here to stay. The good old text-status is available in the About section of profiles and will be rolling out to all Android users over the course of the next week. Users can access and set it by opening the about section of their profiles. They can also view other people’s status by opening their contacts while starting a new chat thread
Meanwhile, WhatsApp is not abandoning the new, Snapchat-style status either. The company is committed to building upon the new Status feature and getting more people to accept it.
The fact remains that both Facebook and WhatsApp now have their eyes upon monetization. Why do you think they are suddenly so keen to introduce a stories like feature to the respective apps? I mean yeah, the feature could be cool under the right set of circumstances and for the right audience. However, WhatsApp status and Facebook’s Messenger Day both appeared to be rushing things. This is so because both of these features — which are based upon Snapchat Stories — are perfect for smuggling in the odd advertisement between content from friends.
Well, at least WhatsApp is not allowing its drive to monetize or become more visual, get in way of user feedback. Meanwhile, Yours truly is off to check if the new text-status are back already. I have been feeling a very strong urge to update it ever since I heard it had arrived on WhatsApp Beta. And I am probably not alone.
