If you're a consistent and heavy WhatsApp user, you surely know that this mobile application's features are always exciting. Probably what makes them exciting is that it's not always that developers of this application launch new features. Because of this, users are always looking forward to something new when it comes to the things they can do with WhatsApp either on their iOS or Android device.

Specifically, this year has been busy with reports of new and exciting features entering WhatsApp. Aside from functioning as a free instant messenger, this messaging platform has now more things to offer. Splash screen, hide muted status, self-destructing messages, new group privacy, and dark mode are among the new WhatsApp features to look forward to. If you haven't experienced or tried the features yet, read the descriptions and see what you might be missing.

Must-Experience Features

There are other things you can do with WhatsApp than send free messages to your contacts. These new WhatsApp features promise to excite you and the other users. Whatever operation system you are using on your mobile phone, you will surely enjoy and benefit from these exciting things you can do with the application.

1. Splash screen - This is not a central feature, but it's more of an update to UI of WhatsApp. So, each time you open the application, you'll be greeted with a screen displaying the logo of WhatsApp at the center. 
2. Hide muted status - If you find status updates annoying, you will definitely love this feature. WhatsApp will let you mute status updates, but you will still appear visible at the screen's bottom part. With 'hide muted status,' you can completely hide muted WhatsApp Status updates. More so, you can retrieve the muted updates from a separate section.
3. Self-destructing messages - This feature is an interesting one. As its name suggests, your WhatsApp messages can self-destruct with the feature. You can turn on the feature and set a time under which all messages can be self-destructed. It's not the same as the 'delete for everyone' feature as it does not show if the messages have been deleted. Instead, they're like, the messages actually never existed.
4. New group privacy - This is the group invitation feature WhatsApp rolled up this year. It prevents others from adding you as the user to other WhatsApp groups. Here, you can choose either 'Nobody,' 'My Contacts,' or 'Everyone,' for your groups on WhatsApp. The latest update brings a change as it can replace 'Nobody' with 'My Contacts expect.' Meaning, you can manually select the contacts you wish not to get added to groups.
5. Dark Mode - Of all the new features introduced, this is highly anticipated by the users of the app. It is designed to address the user's 'eye strain' issue by inverting the colors. This feature has been spotted several times on different beta updates. At present, WhatsApp is developing dark mode for WhatsApp's new additions.