WhatsApp is beta testing new waveform chat bubbles ahead of release

Whatsapp Group Message on iPhone X (Image credit: Luke Filipowicz/iMore)

What you need to know

WhatsApp is testing a change that puts waveforms in chat bubbles.
Waveforms appear in bubbles that include voice notes.

As WhatsApp continues to cement its place as one of the best iPhone instant messaging apps in the App Store, developers have enabled a change that is currently only available to beta testers. And even then, it's only available to some of them. Those people are now seeing waveforms in chat bubbles when they receive voice notes.

As reported by WABetaInfo, the change is kicking in for some beta testers, but not all. Those who have the change enabled for their accounts will now see a waveform when receiving voice notes — but only if the sender also has the feature enabled.

As you can see in this screenshot, specific beta testers can now see voice waveforms in chat bubbles, but not always: you can see voice waveforms for your voice notes if the feature is enabled for your WhatsApp account, but voice waveforms may still not show up when receiving a voice note from someone that have the feature disabled or when the voice note has been recorded using an old version of WhatsApp.

Whatsapp Waveform Beta Screenshot (Image credit: WABetaInfo)

There is no indication of when we can expect this change to be made available to everyone, but WhatsApp is normally pretty good at getting things from TestFlight and into the App Store sooner rather than later. For now, we wait.

WhatsApp is undergoing changes as part of parent company Meta's attempt to keep it on Home screens not only of iPhones but of Android devices and more.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.