Table of Contents
Highlight
- WhatsApp introduces Close Friends to share private status securely.
- Users can create a trusted contact list with full privacy control.
- Updates are end-to-end encrypted and vanish after 24 hours
Close Friends feature in WhatsApp’s iOS beta 25.23.10.80 is set to transform Status updates. WhatsApp, a leading platform for personal and group chats, has often adopted social media ideas to improve sharing. Its popular Status feature, similar to Instagram Stories, lets users post photos, videos, text, or GIFs that vanish after 24 hours. With Close Friends, WhatsApp now offers more privacy and control over who can view these updates.
While WhatsApp’s Close Friends feature is still under development, it appears to take its inspiration from Instagram’s Close Friends Stories option. Instead of publishing a status for all your contacts or constraining it with the current “My Contacts Except…” or “Only Share With…” settings, WhatsApp will let you have the option of a more straightforward and intuitive way to share a more personal update.
How the Close Friends Feature Works
Users will have the ability to create a private list of trusted contacts from their privacy settings. Once you set up your Close Friends list, whenever you make a Status post, WhatsApp update will give you the option to share with all your contacts or close friends.
Here are some important points about how we anticipate the feature will work:
Visual Cues: Just like Instagram, any status shared strictly with Close Friends will have a clearly color ring, making it easy to identify for both the creator and viewer of exclusive updates.
Privacy of List: Your Close Friends list will remain private. There is no notification to the user when they are added or removed from the list. This allows users to manage their list without fear of awkwardness or confrontation.
Access Consistency: If you have put new contacts onto your Close Friends list after a status post, those people cannot then see the status you have already posted without you deleting and reposting it. We want to ensure the moment of publishing is what determines visibility.
End-to-End Encryption: Like all messages and statuses on WhatsApp, these Close Friends updates will be end-to-end encrypted and will disappear after 24 hours.
Similarities with Instagram
It is clear that WhatsApp borrowed some of the ideas from Instagram. The colored ring indicator, the idea of an exclusive circle marked by the “Close Friends” designation, is similar to Instagram’s Close Friends Stories. The big difference is that WhatsApp is mainly a private communication tool, versus a social media network, so the danger of oversharing is even greater. This new feature helps bridge some of the gaps.
What Users Need to Know
While this feature is still in WhatsApp beta testing via TestFlight, it has not been released to all iOS or Android users. WhatsApp is known for running tests of features for weeks and even months prior to global rollouts. Once the feature is operational, it will most likely appear with the audience selection in the Status creation flow. Since it is currently in development, small details are subject to change. For example, the color of the ring or the way the close friends list is applied with other privacy controls could still be a work in progress before the final roll-out.
Looking Forward
Notably, the Close Friends feature is just the first part of WhatsApp’s larger movement aimed at giving users more personalization and control. Recent products, such as enhanced privacy settings, locked chats, and community tool updates, all reinforce WhatsApp’s move towards a more flexible yet still secure option for its users.
In a successful implementation of Close Friends, the feature has the potential to lead to more exclusivity when sharing—maybe different categories of private statuses, such as said policy (Family, Work, Best Friends, etc.)! But for now, the Close Friends feature is meaningful in advancing the balance of privacy, ease of use, and authentic correspondence on WhatsApp.
Conclusion
For a long time, WhatsApp Status has been a space to share casual and temporary updates. And because of not being able to segment an audience, many chose not to share truly personal thoughts or content. By introducing a Close Friends feature, WhatsApp is not just catching up to Instagram, but the company is also giving its massive global audience the opportunity to feel safer and freer in their expression.
Now that Close Friends is rolling out beyond beta, users can expect a more personal and private experience with their statuses – an experience that will hopefully allow users to feel comfortable in finally expressing the most powerful use of this tool that already has untapped potential.
