The Dark theme on WhatsApp has long-been rumoured, but is yet to be officially released on either Android or iOS. While other Facebook-owned apps like Instagram and Facebook Messenger have got Dark themes, WhatsApp’s Dark theme is still a work in progress. In the latest report on WABetaInfo, the Dark theme has once again been spotted in the Android beta version 2.19.311 and the report notes that it could be made available for beta users later on.
Android beta users are those who are testing the upcoming version of the app, not the stable and publicly available build. Users have to go to the Google Play Store and sign up for the beta version of any specific app, though in WhatsApp’s case the beta appears to be closed.
According to the report, the Dark Theme feature is not available yet on the WhatsApp beta for all users to see, given it is still under development. They have however, shared screenshots showing what the Android Dark mode will look like. The new theme implements Dark Bubbles in chats as well, though once again not at all users will see this.
The website had also reported in the past that WhatsApp was working on three configurations for Dark Theme on iOS, but it appears only two have been implemented. The first Dark Theme adopts a configuration using very dark colours, for the table and cells background, while the second has a softer dark colours for the same, points out the report.
Another feature on WhatsApp iOS that has started to roll out is the ability to play trailers from Netflix directly in the app without having to open the Netflix app separately. If a user shared a Netflix compatible link, WhatsApp shows a large thumbnail with a Play icon, notes the report.
Tapping on the Play icon will play the video within WhatsApp in the picture-in-picture mode. WhatsApp is already supporting this mode for Facebook, YouTube and Instagram videos. Users can play videos from these apps directly in WhatsApp now. We were unable to see the play button feature for Netflix links live on our iOS version of WhatsApp.
