WhatsApp users can now send each other animated stickers as the app rolls out a new update. 

The Facebook-owned messaging app, which has two billion users worldwide, recently announced that new features that will work for iPhone, Android and web chat apps.

What are the new features?

Animated stickers

One of the new features will be animated stickers.

WhatsApp users have had the ability to send static stickers, as an alternative to the standard set of emojis found on smartphones, since 2018.

However, rival messaging apps, such as iMessage, have since added to this concept by offering their users animated stickers. WhatsApp is now catching up with its rivals by including its own moving stickers, alongside the moving GIFs it already offers.

Dark Mode for WhatsApp Web and desktop apps

Additionally, the latest update comes with dark mode for desktop versions of WhatsApp - known as Whatsapp Web.

Dark mode was first introduced on Android and iPhone in March 2020, in order to give users the option of lowering their exposure to blue light on evenings - something which has been found to interrupt sleep.

QR Codes

Another feature is the ability to add a contact to a video call using an automatically-generated QR code on the smartphone app, which will also upload all of that users contact details directly into your app.

Speaking out about the feature WhatsApp has said the QR code will make it "easier than ever" to add a new contact.

Video call improvements

WhatsApp has made it easier for users to focus on individual people during a group call, by simply pressing that person's video tile down, to make it viewable in full screen.

The company has also added a simple video icon in group chats with fewer than eight members, to make it easier than ever to start up a group call.

When will these features go live?

WhatsApp has announced the five new features will be rolled out to users over the coming weeks as part of a new update.