Fresh group tools arrive in WhatsApp Messenger

What changed this week

These are the three changes in WhatsApp Messenger that stand out in the developer's update notes and on its Google Play listing this week.

1. 01Offer newcomers a recent conversation catch-up

   Adding a group member now includes an option to share recent history, so you can decide whether the person joining should receive some context from the existing conversation.

2. 02Switch devices during a group conversation

   The calling additions let you move an ongoing group call from a phone to a desktop, or the other way around, rather than staying with the device used initially.

3. 03Control call entry and participant emphasis

   A waiting room is coming to calls joined through links, while a pinning option gives one participant a larger tile when you want to keep that person in view.

Our call on whether to update, and the link to the official Google Play listing, are on this issue's WhatsApp Messenger page.

Also updated this week

WhatsApp Messenger is one of 51 apps with a full screen in Issue 1. Next up in this issue:

See all 51 apps in this issue →

Tips

• Choose your Status audience deliberately

  Use Status for text, pictures, videos, or GIFs that disappear after 24 hours. You can share these posts with every contact or only selected people. Before posting something personal, choose the audience that suits it, rather than treating a temporary post as something everyone needs to see.

• Share location for a specific purpose

  Location sharing works inside an individual conversation or a group chat, and you can stop it at any time. Use it when meeting someone or coordinating an arrival, then stop sharing when that purpose is finished. Keep the choice tied to the people in that particular conversation.

• Keep support within easy reach

  For a question about using the app, open Settings, then Help, then Contact Us. That is the support route WhatsApp provides. Describe the task you were attempting and what happened instead, so your question stays focused on the difficulty rather than unrelated parts of the app.

Menu names follow the developer's help pages and can differ slightly between versions and phones.

How we write the digest

Each week we check the Google Play listings of the apps our readers use most: the version number, the update date and the developer's What's new notes. When an app has a new version, we put the developer's update notes and the listing details together on one page, in plain words, with a link to the official Google Play listing. Google and most developers release updates in stages over several days, so a version listed here may not have reached your phone yet. Select Weekly is an independent site and is not affiliated with any developer. This page doesn't read your phone or your Google account, and nothing is installed from here.

Issue 1 · week of Oct 13–19, 2026 · listings checked against Google Play listings on Oct 19

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