Summary
- WhatsApp introduces a new bottom bar design for easier navigation, adhering to Material Design guidelines.
- The app now features four equal-sized tabs in the bar at the bottom of the screen, making it easier to access with your thumbs.
- The app is also developing a new chat suggestions feature, located at the bottom of the active chats list.
WhatsApp has been on a roll this month, testing out a bunch of functional and visual updates for the app design. With March coming to a close, there’s no better time to make our favorite instant messaging app even better with a feature we’ve all been craving for years. Meta finally announced that WhatsApp’s new navigation bar design is here to stay, even on the stable channel. However, that doesn’t mean beta testers can catch a break — they just spotted a new feature suggesting contacts you could talk to.
WhatsApp has been testing a new navigation bar design for around a year now. Beta testers first spotted the change, clarifying the app’s intentions to adhere to Google’s Material Design guidelines. However, WhatsApp quickly reversed the change, and we saw it reappear once again in June and September 2023, before spotting it once again last week.
Interestingly, last week’s beta test of the new bottom bar design had a sense of finality about it, because we spotted it on linked Android phones too, which remained unaffected by previous tests. Now, WhatsApp has made the change official with an announcement on X (formerly Twitter). The new tab bar is pinned to the bottom of the screen, and features four tabs — Chats, Updates, Communities, and Calls — a departure from the old tab bar which had a small tab for Communities and larger ones for Chats, Status, and Calls, in that order.
WhatsApp says the new bottom bar design is closer to your thumbs and hence easier to reach. It’s also easier to reach and supports swiping sideways to hop between tabs. The app changelog on the Play Store has also been updated, and we are already seeing this feature roll out on most of our devices.
Chat suggestions are in the pipeline
That said, the beta community still has exciting features to test and look forward to. For instance, WABetaInfo recently spotted the app working on a new Suggested contacts section in the Chats tab. After combing through the latest Play Store beta for WhatsApp (version 2.24.7.23), testers found a section dedicated to suggesting new contacts you can chat with.
Interestingly, this section is located at the bottom of the list of active chats, where few users may ever venture, given how essential WhatsApp is in some markets. It could benefit someone setting up a new WhatsApp account, though. Since the feature is still in the works, the final implementation could differ, but we would find this addition useful if it showed up for a short while after we save a new contact on WhatsApp or the device dialer app.
