WhatsApp announced a slew of new features for its app on Thursday ahead of the holiday season. According to the Meta-owned instant messaging platform, its new Missed Call Messages feature is a replacement for traditional voicemail and is designed to make it easier to catch up with loved ones. Image creation with Meta AI is also said to have received upgrades, including the ability to animate images into short videos and improved generation quality.

New Features on WhatsApp

Missed Call Messages is a new feature on WhatsApp that allows users to record a note if the recipient isn't available to attend calls. Depending on the call type, they can either record a voice or a video note and send it to them with one tap. “This new approach will make voicemails a thing of the past,” the company said in a blog post.

Users can also react during a voice chat with new reactions, including ‘cheers!', without interrupting the rest of the conversation. Further, WhatsApp will now prioritise the speaker in a video call.

Apart from this, the instant messaging platform is bringing Meta AI image creation improvements. It now features new image generation model capabilities from Flux and Midjourney. WhatsApp claims a “huge” improvement when creating images, such as annual holiday greetings, ahead of the holiday season.

Meta AI also introduces image animation capabilities. As per WhatsApp, users can animate any photo into a short video, based on the prompts and messages they enter. On desktop, the app has a new media tab for easy sorting of documents, links, and media across chats. The appearance of link previews is also claimed to have been refined.

Among the last of the changes is the new stickers on Status. Users can add music lyrics, interactive stickers, and questions to which others can respond. WhatsApp is also getting questions on Channels. The Meta-owned platform says this feature will allow admins to engage with their audience on a higher level and receive responses in real time.