WhatsApp tests new update with animated chat wallpapers

WhatsApp's beta channel has been busy this week, with updates spanning group chat management, chat personalisation, and a new tool for labelling AI-generated content.

The most visible change is a fresh set of Android chat themes, spotted in beta version 2.26.31.2, though several other features are already rolling out more widely.

What to expect from WhatsApp's new beta update?

WhatsApp is testing three new theme categories for Android chats. 'Featured' introduces animated wallpapers with slow, subtle motion designed not to distract from conversations.

Doodle brings back the platform's classic pattern-based backgrounds, while Minimal strips things back to a plain white or dark background depending on system settings. 

All three automatically adjust chat bubble colours to match. The feature remains in development and isn't yet available to beta testers.

Three features have been introduced for polls, which include setting a deadline for the poll, enabling anonymity in voting by hiding names of voters, and editing the poll question within 15 minutes after its publication.

Another feature that is called @all, allows you to notify all members of the group instantly, including muted groups, but it can only be used by group administrators when the size of the group exceeds 32 members. The other feature of WhatsApp is a one-tap feature that allows the creation of a new group from an existing one.

For Mac beta testers, it is possible now to decide whether to receive the latest update or stick to the more stable weekly release.

WhatsApp is also developing a notification that encourages users to activate notifications on channels that they have just subscribed to, since they come muted by default.

Another product update from WhatsApp is developing the ability for channel admins to mark messages created using AI technology, which is required in certain parts of the world.