WhatsApp is bringing Stories more front and center for users
Similar to Instagram and Facebook, WhatsApp has support for Stories, or in the case of WhatsApp, they’re referred to as Status updates, but functionally and conceptually it’s more or less the same thing.
But the problem with WhatsApp Status updates is that they’re placed in a separate tab so unless you’re looking for it specifically, there’s a good chance that most people probably won’t notice or bother, but that could change soon. This is according to a report from WABetaInfo which discovered the upcoming change.
Assuming this change is going to be implemented and won’t just purely be a test, WhatsApp will be bringing Status updates front and center where users who have posted Status updates will have a blue ring around their profile photo in the main chat list. This is similar to how Instagram’s Stories are displayed in DMs, so that users know that there is something new.
It appears that despite this change, WhatsApp still plans on keeping the dedicated Status tab, meaning that these Status updates appearing in the main chat list will act more as a shortcut. Hopefully this will increase the engagement with Status updates for WhatsApp. At the moment, there is no cross-posting from Instagram to WhatsApp.
There is cross-posting between Instagram and Facebook, but that’s mainly because they are social media platforms whereas WhatsApp is more of a communications tool.
Source: WABetaInfo