WhatsApp New Android Beta Hints at Active Development of Vacation Mode Feature for Archived Chats

WhatsApp is actively working on a ‘Vacation Mode' feature to bring users the ability to keep archived chat in archive even when a new message arrives. Currently, WhatsApp unarchives chats when a new message comes in, and Vacation Mode looks to prevent that from happening. The latest WhatsApp for Android beta sees improvements to this Vacation Mode feature, and hints that WhatsApp is actively developing it, including UI tweaks to the Archived Chats section. The feature is still under development and hasn't been enabled for public beta testing yet.

The instant messaging platform has released the latest WhatsApp Beta for Android v2.20.206.2, and WhatsApp-watchers WABetaInfo dug into its code to see all the new features WhatsApp may be working on. The features tracker found WhatsApp is busy developing the Vacation Mode feature. This new addition, as mentioned, allows users to keep chats in the archive when new messages arrive. In the past beta updates, WhatsApp prevented muted archived chats to be automatically unarchived when new messages arrived, but this new beta release suggests that WhatsApp users need not mute chats to keep them in archive.

There are also some changes noted in the interface, for instance, “Archived Chats” may be moved at the top of your chat list once Vacation Mode is enabled for better visibility. In this update, WhatsApp is also working to introduce the ‘Archived Chats feature with a new banner that reads, “Move chats you want to keep muted here' adding, ‘Chats with new messages won't return to main chat list. This hints that the behaviour of archived chats function will change for all chats archived. For now, the tracker says that these new tweaks haven't been enabled for users even on the latest beta.

In 2020, will WhatsApp get the killer feature that every Indian is waiting for? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.