WhatsApp releases new Status feature similar to Instagram Stories and Snapchat Stories

WhatsApp has just released a new feature called Status that allows you to share videos and photos that disappear after 24 hours.
Now where have I seen this before? Hmmm.

Oh right, it's the same feature we've seen as Snapchat Stories, which Facebook copied to make Instagram Stories which it's now copying to make Facebook Stories.

WhatsApp was originally testing this feature in the beta version last November.
WhatsApp Status is a revamped version of the status update feature seen on WhatsApp. It allows you to share gifs, videos and photos and edit them with stickers, text, drawings and whatnot.

Similar to Snapchat, WhatsApp Status is accessed by the in-app camera and your stories appear in a new Status tab aside the Contacts, Chats, and Calls tabs.

This new Status update (get it?) was done because it's WhatsApp's eighth birthday and it brings us back to the basic idea of Whatsapp, updating your status.

The original idea behind the project was to build an application that lets your friends and other contacts know what you're up to. This was months before we added messaging. The first version of our app looked like this:

 When we noticed people were using the feature to communicate in real time, we redesigned WhatsApp as a messaging app.

WhatsApp has over one billion users worldwide and this new feature might just add to its success but let's not lie, the original text based status is much more better than this.

The Whatsapp Status feature is available now for iOS, Android and Windows Phones now.