Last week, WhatsApp was reportedly working on a couple of new features. The Facebook-owned messaging platform is adding animated stickers and a camera shortcut. WhatsApp Pay, the company’s payment service was also suspended in Brazil.
WhatsApp’s payment system was suspended in Brazil little over a week after it was unveiled in the country. The Brazilian central bank claimed that rolling out the service without a proper analysis could damage the country’s payment system. The central bank will reportedly use the suspension to evaluate the potential risks to the country’s payment infrastructure and workout whether WhatsApp Pay is compliant with regulation. However, WhatsApp also has confirmed that its payment service will launch as scheduled in India.
A new WhatsApp feature that is reportedly coming to the platform is animated stickers. The support for animated stickers was spotted by WABetaInfo in WhatsApp v2.20.194.7 beta for Android and WhatsApp v2.20.70.26 beta for iOS. Animated stickers on WhatsApp will be implemented in three parts, the first of which is the ability to view animated stickers, save them and send them. The second is the possibility to import stickers from third parties and lastly, download default animated sticker packs from the WhatsApp Store. Animated stickers are currently available to select WhatsApp users.
The final WhatsApp development this week was the restoration of the old camera shortcut within the chat share sheet, giving users another easy access point for photos. The option was removed when the Facebook Messenger Rooms shortcut was added just a few weeks ago. The feature is currently available in the latest version of the Android beta app.
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