WhatsApp gains offline message sending, overhauled storage usage screen & more

Facebook-owned WhatsApp was refreshed on App Store this morning with a few new features. Bumped to version 2.17.1, the iPhone application now lets you queue up messages while offline to be delivered when the device regains an Internet connection.

WhatsApp’s storage management screen has been redesigned and now allows you to selectively delete specific media file types on a per-chat basis.

“You can now tap the Send button on messages when you don’t have an Internet connection,” according to WhatsApp’s release notes. “Messages will be queued up and sent when your phone regains a connection.”

The redesigned storage usage screen, shown below, makes it easy to manage your phone’s storage space by clearing certain message types—such as videos, photos, locations, documents and more—from specific chats. Deleting unwanted media from chats also makes WhatsApp’s iCloud backups smaller.

To access the redesigned storage management screen within WhatsApp, tap Settings → Data and Storage Usage → Storage Usage.

Before signing off, WhatsApp 2.17.1 now lets you send up to thirty photos or videos at once, resulting in fewer taps when bulk-sending lots of media files to a contact.

WhatsApp for iOS is a free download from App Store.