Image: Adobe Stock
The company is rolling out voicemail-style voice and video messages, emoji reactions in voice chats, and new AI image tools, even as major security flaws raise fresh risks.
WhatsApp is one step closer to killing off the phone app, with a new update that lets users record a voice or video message if a contact misses a call.
While the communications giant is marketing this as the end of voicemail, it’s really a reinvention of the system with multimedia features. WhatsApp doesn’t offer regular voicemail tools, but these messages should give users a quicker way to leave a note without having to pull up the microphone or camera options, as is currently the case.
Alongside the upgraded voicemail feature, WhatsApp is also adding the ability to send emoji reactions while in voice chats, with the app automatically sending the reaction to whoever is currently speaking.
WhatsApp has also added Midjourney and Flux AI models to its growing set of image-generation tools, following partnership deals with both companies earlier in the year. This arrives less than a month after WhatsApp announced a ban on general-purpose AI chatbots, with Microsoft Copilot the first to leave the app.
In contrast to the platform restrictions it is imposing on others, WhatsApp has recently changed its stance on making the app available on smaller app stores. Last month, it announced the long-awaited Apple Watch app and indicated it would look at launching dedicated experiences on more platforms in the future.
Even though WhatsApp has been owned by Meta — the parent of Facebook and Instagram — for more than a decade, very little has changed compared with Meta’s other apps. That may be shifting, as Meta considers turning WhatsApp into a communication superapp that combines messaging, commerce, government services, and more into a single experience.
To reach that point, WhatsApp needs to be available on more devices and offer multimedia features on par with competitors. It already has three billion monthly users, higher than Meta’s other communication services, such as Messenger and Instagram’s integrated messaging.
WhatsApp is also expanding its business side, with hundreds of thousands of companies using the app for customer service, sending one-time codes, and providing direct shopping portals. Adoption has been strongest in Southeast Asia and India.
Major data breaches have put this expansion at risk, especially if Meta plans deeper integration of government ID and customer support tools within the app’s ecosystem. Austrian researchers recently revealed a significant weakness in WhatsApp’s contact discovery tool, which could have allowed access to the 3.5 billion phone numbers stored in the company’s directory.
This follows allegations from a former WhatsApp executive that WhatsApp and parent company Meta ignored serious security flaws that could have put billions of users at risk of phishing and other scams. The former executive has filed a lawsuit against Meta, claiming the company turned a blind eye to large-scale account hacking on WhatsApp that had been known about for years.
The breach behind the recent AT&T data breach settlement highlights how phone number data tied to mobile accounts can sit in third-party systems for years.
David Curry is a tech journalist and analyst with over a decade of experience writing for established outlets. He holds a master’s degree in International Journalism from the University of Leeds and has covered the technology sector since the early 2010s. His work focuses on B2B technology, data journalism, mobile apps and app markets, artificial intelligence, digital platforms, and emerging technologies. He earned a BA from the University of Lincoln and an MA from the University of Leeds.
