Back by popular demand. This old saying fits perfectly with the drama that swirled out of nowhere around WhatsApp’s now infamous video status update. WhatsApp users, who seem to be a minimalistic bunch, or, rather, so used to a pretty barebones messaging app that every effort to dress it up seems like a blasphemy, did rebel against the video status update, as they felt WhatsApp would simply be copying Snap or Insta.
Well, copying is all messaging apps do these days, and there is barely a feature introduced by some team that others don’t pick up quickly. Even the unique proposition of Snapchat got replicated quickly after becoming popular, so too bad for those who participated in Snap’s initial public offering, but at least the founders cashed out like bandits. WhatsApp, however, relented, and brought the text status update back, but only in the beta version of the app.
Well, that feature is out of beta now, and the text status update is rolling out to the billion or so users of WhatsApp’s application, so check out if you have gotten it already. Tap on the overflow menu (the infamous three dots) in the upper right hand corner of the app. Once this has been achieved, click on Settings, then tap on your name. That will take you to the Profile tab from where you can type in your status, or choose from a few presets. Not exactly seamless, but at least it is there, concurrently with the video status.
