WhatsApp for iPhone gains enhanced in-app alerts

WhatsApp 2.12.14 3D Touch shortcut menu Home screen iPhone 6s screenshot

WhatsApp for iPhone was updated in the App Store earlier this morning, bringing out a few noteworthy improvements to in-app notifications.

In addition, you can now choose to save incoming media for specific chats in contact or group info while the ability to share PDF documents from other apps into WhatsApp has expanded to everyone.

WhatsApp no longer charges an annual subscription fee. The Facebook-owned firm’s been hard at work testing a feature for exporting chats in a ZIP archive and is also prepping to finally roll out video calling in WhatsApp.

To access per-contact and per-chat controls for adjusting whether incoming media is saved, tap the contact name at the top of the chat window, tap the Save Incoming Media button on their card and select an option: Default (Off), Always or Never.

WhatsApp per chat media saving iPhone screenshot 001

As I said, alerts for missed calls will now appear inside of chats. Before today, missed call notifications wouldn’t pop up while you were chatting with someone.

Moreover, Quick Reply is now available within the app: pull down on an in-app alert to quickly reply right from the notification banner. Previously, Quick Reply was available for WhatsApp’s notifications outside the app but not for in-app alerts.

WhatsApp 2.12.16 highlights

Here’s everything new in WhatsApp 2.12.16:

  • You can now choose to save incoming media for specific chats in contact info or group info
  • Pull down on in-app notifications to quickly reply to them
  • Missed call notifications will now appear inside of chats
  • Share PDFs from other apps into WhatsApp

Availability

WhatsApp requires an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad with iOS 6.0 or later. The app lacks a native interface on iPads and doesn’t have a watchOS app for the Apple Watch.

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

Grab WhatsApp at no charge in the App Store.