Following the recent discovery that WhatsApp was working on new chat themes, the feature is now rolling out to iPhone users. Here are the details.
WhatsApp’s new chat themes include animated backgrounds
As WhatsApp is now rolling out five new categories for chat themes: Featured, Nature, Live, Minimal, and Doodle. Just two weeks ago, the site had spotted references to the new theme galleries in code
The site notes that while Featured includes “a selection of the best themes available,” curated by WhatsApp’s design team, the Nature category “offers themes that bring outdoor landscapes to the chat screen.” Live, meanwhile,“features wallpapers that move slowly in the background,” while Minimal themes “apply a plain background to the chat screen: white in light mode and dark in dark mode.” Finally, Doodle includes WhatsApp’s classic wallpaper with the doodle patterns.
Here’s WABetaInfo on the Live wallpapers, which are arguably the most notable addition:
Live is the most distinctive category for this update. This category features wallpapers that move slowly in the background. WhatsApp marks these themes by a small Live icon in the top right corner of its thumbnail. This makes it easier for users to recognize themes with an animated wallpaper, even when they are listed into the Featured category. About the animation, WhatsApp keeps it deliberately slow, just enough to give the background a dynamic feel. This is important since a faster animation would distract users from reading their messages. It could also cause discomfort for people with certain accessibility needs. As a result, this is not a technical limitation, but it is a perfect design choice.
WABetaInfo notes that WhatsApp automatically assigns a chat bubble color based on the selected theme, and adds that, as is the case with WhatsApp rollouts, the new feature might not be immediately available to all users.
To read WABetaInfo’s full report, follow this link.
Do you have access to the new chat themes? Let us know in the comments.
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