WhatsApp is huge no doubt. It has a series of features including the WhatsApp Status which is equivalent to Instagram Stories. Back in March, WhatsApp decided to limit the duration of WhatsApp Statuses to 15 seconds from its original 30 seconds. It took the step to reduce the bandwidth since almost all parts of India are in partial or total lockdown since later March. Turns out WhatsApp is restoring the duration of WhatsApp Statuses to 30 seconds.
Read about: Whatsapp Status Limit Reduced to 15s
According to WhatsApp, it had to reduce the duration of WhatsApp Status to decrease the load on its servers since everyone is coping with lockdown due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation. Just like WhatsApp; Netflix, YouTube, and a bunch of other platforms resorted to reducing video resolution to allow more people to access the platforms on the same bandwidth without any errors.
Also Read: Whatsapp increases group call limits
With that being said, the Instagram Stories equivalent of WhatsApp will allow users to share 30 seconds clips as their status on WhatsApp while the number of status being uploaded in a day remains unchanged as there’s basically no cap on it at this moment.
WhatsApp Status is based on Snapchat Stories that disappear after 24 hours which is also how Instagram Stories work. Back in March, the change was from the server-side and thus, everyone was subjected to a 15-seconds cap on video status irrespective if they have updated the app or not.
Similarly, this upcoming duration restoring update caught by WABetaInfo on WhatsApp Beta v2.20.166 will be server-side thereby all the updates will be done automatically without the user’s intervention.
WABetInfo also caught a new feature that is reportedly being developed that allows WhatsApp users to establish group calls on Facebook Messenger Rooms within the WhatsApp app itself. This feature would allow up to 50 members to connect although the update remains yet to be released. On the other hand, the Payments option on WhatsApp is under the radar after it violated anti-trust laws in India.
Narender Kumar
Always on the quest to learn and share the knowledge. Big fan of books (but not the self help ones) specially fiction. A grammar Nazi who loves to eat, cook, travel and watching thunderstorms.