Users View:New Whatsapp Update Has Ruined Users Experience

When WhatsApp recently rolled out a new update that make it look more like Snapchat, the backlash from app store reviewers was swift and fierce. 

The app’s persistently-high ratings plummeted to one- and two-star reviews over the last couple of weeks, as people complained the messaging app owned by Facebook had ruined its user experience with a new "Status" feature.

The feature let users share photos, GIFS and videos overlaid with colourful drawings and emojis, and they would disappear after 24 hours.

Sound familiar? The feature is a lot like Snapchat's Stories, which have also been been copied by fellow Facebook-property, Instagram.

“The latest update has destroyed a flawless messenger,” said one reviewer on Apple’s App Store on March 7. “Why ruin a completely functional platform to introduce Snapchat-style status updates?”

Check out some users reactions;

Contrary to the above Whatsapp has this to say;

•  WhatsApp Status: Post photos, videos, and GIFs to your status and share with your contacts what's going on throughout your day. Status updates from your contacts appear in the Status tab, and they'll disappear after 24 hours. Long press on a contact's name in the Status tab to mute their updates.

•  Quickly access the camera by swiping right from the Chats tab.

• Turn on two-step verification in Settings > Account to require a passcode when registering your phone number with WhatsApp.

 asked another on March 10.  

WhatsApp hasn’t done a complete U-turn on Status, but it is bringing back the feature that it replaced, a simple text-only status that sits next to each user’s profile. The default is for it to say “Hey there, I’m using WhatsApp!” but many users like to personalize it with descriptions like “Chilling” or “Frolicking.” 

“We heard from our users that people missed the ability to set a persistent text-only update in their profile, so we’ve integrated this feature into the ‘About’ section in profile settings,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said. Now the old update will go back to appearing next to profile names whenever you look at contacts. 

The swift response by WhatsApp shows it doesn’t want to put off its more than 1 billion worldwide users with a feature that feels unfamiliar. WhatsApp was first released nearly eight years ago and its user interface hasn't changed much in all that time. The introduction of Status was easily WhatsApp's biggest feature change since its first, early pivot to becoming a messaging app.     

Crucially, it signifies a means by which WhatsApp might be able to show subtle, or not-so-subtle messages from advertisers for the first time.

WhatsApp doesn't make any revenue, but since it was bought by Facebook in February 2014 it has talked about introducing a system for businesses to send messages to its users. The examples it gave: a bank notifying its customer of potential fraud or an airline letting you that know that a flight was delayed. But in reality, such utilitarian messages are few and far between, and businesses are more likely to pay for the chance to persuade you to buy their goods.

Besides that, allowing businesses to message people through chat bots on WhatsApp probably lost steam over the past year, as bots proved to be less successful than they were hyped to be. The Information recently reported that chat bots on Facebook's Messenger had a 70% failure rate at fulfilling requests, without the help of human agents.

The Status feature represented the first time WhatsApp was introducing a means for passively consuming content, a bit like Facebook or Instagram's newsfeeds, and that kind user interface is ripe for showing ads or marketing messages.

The new tweak to Status is rolling out for Android users over the next week, and “coming soon” to iPhones, the spokesperson added.

Whether that's enough to appease WhatsApp's users is another story entirely, especially as it's a relatively minor step back, and WhatsApp has yet to make any bigger steps towards letting businesses and marketers engage with its users.  

Culled: Forbes.com