Whatsapp Status feature now enabled in India – here’s how to get it on your phone in 4 steps

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The Facebook-owned Instagram had earlier copied the Snapchat Stories to launch its Instagram Stories. Recently, another Facebook-owned app, WhatsApp announced the new  Status which is also copycat of Snapchat Stories. The company made it official via a blog post and two days after the announcement, the feature is now enabled in India. India is the WhatsApp’s biggest market with 160 million monthly active users as of November last year. The numbers might have further increased with the Jio 4G free offer, where we have seen a sudden increase in the data usage along with the mobile internet users.

Follow the below four steps to get the new “WhatsApp Status” feature on your Android smartphone. Before going further, make sure that there is an active internet connection on your device.

1. Open the ‘Play Store’ app on your smartphone and search Whatsapp by entering in the search bar on the top.
2. Now open the app listing and tap on ‘update’ button.
3. Once the app is installed, tap on ‘Open’ and you will see the new Status feature in between the Chats and Calls sections.
4. If you still can’t find the Status feature, close the app from multitasking menu and reopen WhatsApp.

This new status feature replaces the older version of the status that can be expressed only in text and emojis. Now, the user can share the image or video as a status. These are end-to-end encrypted and will automatically disappear after 24 hours. Now, the contacts section is replaced with status, and the user can just swipe left or right to navigate. On the extreme left, we have camera icon for capturing videos and images to share immediately. Even while viewing other’s status, just swipe left to view the next status and swipe down to close the status. Unlike the Instagram and Snapchat stories, there are no live filters available.

Post your questions regarding the WhatsApp Stories in the comments section below, and we will try to answer them.

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