In late July, WhatsApp started testing picture-in-picture support for video calls in its beta program for the application. We didn’t have any idea at that time as to when WhatsApp would be rolling out PiP for all users, but it looks like that day has officially come.
WhatsApp’s latest update on the Google Play Store bumps it up to version 2.17.323, and the according to the official changelog:
When in a video call, you can tap back to continue the video call in picture-in-picture mode (Android 8.0+)
Tapping the back button while taking a video call in WhatsApp will take you back to your main conversation screen for the contact you’re talking to, and if you’d like, you can go all the way back to your home screen and even open up other applications while still being able to view the video call that you’re currently on. It’s a really smart use of Android Oreo’s picture-in-picture feature, and arguably more useful than Google’s recent PiP support for Maps.
The changelog for the 2.17.323 update also indicates that WhatsApp’s text-based status features are available, but seeing as how WhatsApp started rolling this out back in August, our guess is that this is just another reminder that these features actually exist.
Now you can post text-only updates to your stauts and they’ll be visible for 24 hours. Just tap the pencil icon in the Status tab, type what you’d like, and pick a background color of your choice.
WhatsApp v2.17.323 is available now on the Google Play Store, but as always, you can manually download the APK yourself if the update isn’t showing on your end quite yet. If you need help doing so, take a look at our step-by-step guide.
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