New in WhatsApp: New Number Menu for Android, View-Once Media for Windows

WhatsApp keeps developing new features, and the recently released beta versions have even two of them, though on different platforms. Windows users finally get some access to such a demanded feature as view-once media. Those on Android now can better handle the phone numbers in the messages they receive.

WhatsApp for Windows beta 2.2212.2.0 delivers the feature that PC users have been missing since its introduction: view-once media. On Android and iOS, users can exchange media for a single view which disappears after that. Windows users, previously deprived of it, now can at least view these photos and videos. Still, the feature is one-sided: sending view-once media from the Windows app is not available yet, even in beta.

As for Android users, they can install WhatsApp for Android beta 2.22.8.11 and enjoy the new pop-up menu that appears as you tap on the phone number in the message. Now, this menu contains two options. If a sequence of digits is recognized as a phone number, you can either call it with your default phone app or save it to your phonebook. If this number is already on your phonebook and is also on WhatsApp, you can use

WhatsApp for calling too. But this doesn’t work with numbers unfamiliar to you, even if they are present on WhatsApp but not in your book.

Both features were spotted by the popular site WABetaInfo which specializes in exploring alpha and beta versions of WhatsApp for various platforms and finding new features even before they are announced, let alone implemented. Not always do the new features make it to the release. But most of them do, and getting to know it before the others is a reason to become a beta user and tester.

Which of these features do you consider more useful? Do you use WhatsApp for Windows, for Android, or both? Let us know what you think in the comments!