WhatsApp rolls out responding to messages and calls directly from notifications to everyone

WhatsApp for iPhone Quick Reply iPhone screenshot 001

After testing out with a subset of its user base a new ability to quickly respond to incoming messages directly from the notification banner, Facebook-owned WhatsApp today began rolling out this feature to its massive 900+ million monthly active users. In addition, this edition of WhatsApp for iPhone also makes it easy to reply to incoming WhatsApp VoIP calls with a message, right from the call notification. Both features require Apple’s latest mobile operating system.

Quickly replying to messages from the notification banner requires iOS 9.1 or later. Replying to an incoming WhatsApp call with a message right from the call notification requires iOS 9.0 or later.

To respond to an incoming message or VoIP call from a WhatsApp notification, just pull down on the notification banner after it shows up briefly at the screen top. You can also swipe the notification in the Notification Center to the left and tap on Reply, which also shows the notification banner with a text field below.

This lets you type your reply and hit Send without leaving the context of the app you’re using. To reply from the Lock screen, swipe a WhatsApp notification from right to left to reveal the blue Reply button.

This will take you to the notification banner to type in your response. You will need to unlock your iPhone first if it’s protected with a passcode.

Previous WhatsApp updates have added the ability to star messages so they’re easier to find later, 3D Touch compatibility on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, optimization for right-to-left Arabic languages (requires iOS 9.0 or later) and more.

Availability

WhatsApp requires an iPhone with iOS 6.0 or later and a mobile phone number.

The app is localized in English, Arabic, Bokmål, Norwegian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.

Grab WhatsApp for free in the App Store.