Latest news with #Status
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Indian Express
WhatsApp adds new features to make Status more creative and personal
Popular instant messaging app WhatsApp, on Friday, May 30, introduced some creative ways to help users express themselves through Status. WhatsApp Status is a highly personal space where users share their key moments with those who matter to them the most. Be it candid photos or sharing pictures from birthdays or anniversaries, the new features on Status have been designed to add some depth, creativity, and connection. WhatsApp is introducing features like layouts, music, photo stickers, 'Add Yours' prompts, etc. Layouts will help users turn up to six photos into a collage with easy-to-use editing tools. One simply needs to arrange the images exactly how they want to showcase them all in one frame. It is ideal for sharing a highlight reel of the day or event. Music posts allows you to create a status that revolves entirely around a song. Be it a tune that elevates one's mood or sets the tone for the day, users can make music the focus or use a music sticker to enhance their status update. With photo stickers, users can now turn any photo into a sticker and add it to their status. One can also resize, reshape, and position however they like to make their update unique. On the other hand, 'Add Yours' prompts can help you kickstart a conversation. Use the new Add Yours sticker on a photo to invite friends to share their views on your prompt. They can later add their response to their own status. WhatsApp has said that these features will begin rolling out soon and will become available to all WhatsApp users in the coming months. With these new features, WhatsApp Status is becoming richer and more engaging for users. As of 2024, India accounts for over 596 million monthly active users on WhatsApp, making it one of the largest markets for the messaging platform. The app's popularity is largely due to its user-friendly interface and support for multiple Indian languages. Over the years, the platform has become a cost-effective communication mode for both urban and rural users. Not just personal messaging, WhatsApp has emerged as a vital tool for businesses in India. Additionally, with its expansion into digital payments, WhatsApp Pay consolidates its role in the nation's digital ecosystem.
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Business Standard
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Business Standard
Soon, you can share collage, music, and photo stickers on WhatsApp Status
WhatsApp is set to roll out an update that introduces new tools to make Status posts more creative and engaging. The platform is adding the ability to integrate music tracks as stickers, introduce customisable layouts, and turn photos into stickers—features aimed at making Status updates more personal and expressive. These tools will begin rolling out soon and are expected to become available to all WhatsApp users over the coming months. WhatsApp Status: What is new Layouts option A new layout feature will allow users to create collages using up to six photos. These images can be arranged using built-in editing tools, making it easier to tell a story or showcase a photo collection in a single Status post. Photo Stickers With the photo stickers tool, users can turn their favourite images into stickers directly within Status. These stickers can be resized and reshaped for a playful and personalised touch. This interactive 'Add Yours' sticker lets users choose a picture and invite their friends to join the conversation. Friends can respond to the prompt and share their own answers to their own Status.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
WhatsApp Adds Status Functionalities, Including More Music Sharing Options
This story was originally published on Social Media Today. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Social Media Today newsletter. WhatsApp's adding some new creative options to Status, its Stories-like option for the messaging app, including updated Layout option, more music sharing functionality, photo stickers, and more. First off, WhatsApp's added a new collage option within its Layout tools, which enables you to convert up to six images into a combined frame. Users can place the images in the collage however they like, with the Layout tools making it easier to present the display in variable formats. WhatsApp's also adding new music sharing options, including the ability to turn a song into a music sticker, and add it to a separate status post: 'like a selfie, for extra pizzazz.' WhatsApp launched music for Status updates back in March, which enables users to share popular music clips to accompany their Stories-like updates. It's also testing music sharing from Spotify, and given the platform's massive reach, it could become a key driver of music promotion and engagement. WhatsApp's also adding Photo Stickers, which, as it sounds, will enable you to turn a photo into a sticker, and add it to your status. Similar to the same functionality on Instagram, you'll be able to edit the sticker's size in the composer, so you can use your photos in new ways within your updates. Finally, WhatsApp's also rolling out its own version of the 'Add Yours' sticker for Status. As per WhatsApp: 'Choose a picture and use the Add Yours sticker to invite friends in on the conversation. When they respond to your prompt, they can share it to their status and hear what their community has to say, too.' Which is again similar to the same on IG Stories, with Status gradually catching up in terms of functionality, ensuring greater expressive capacity within the DM focused app. WhatsApp's been gaining popularity, particularly in the U.S., where it now has over 100 million users. The app is also, of course, the most used messaging app in the world, with over 3 billion active users, which gives Meta a huge market advantage in rolling out new tools like this to many users who don't have access to other social media apps. As such, expanding WhatsApp's functionality could also lead to more opportunities, both for Meta and creators/brands in the app. So while these may seem like fairly simple updates, given their availability in other apps, they are significant in the broader development of WhatsApp as a connective tool.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
WhatsApp announces new features for Status, an AIM away message for the 21st century
WhatsApp Status is getting a bit of a facelift. Status is WhatsApp's version of an AIM away message (an ancient AOL feature from the early days of the social internet), which basically allows users to say what they're up to while they're not near the app. In a new feature released on Thursday, you can personalize your Status just like you would an Instagram Story. "More ways to express yourself on Status." Credit: WhatsApp "WhatsApp Status is your private space to keep the people who matter most to you up to date on what's happening day to day. Whether it's your wedding day and you're using Status to give those who couldn't make a front row seat or you just want to share what made you smile most today, bring even more of your personality to each Status," a press release from WhatsApp reads. You can turn your away message into a collage, like you would in Instagram Stories, by using the layout tool. You can add music, post stickers, and add the "Add Yours" sticker, all of which you can already do on Instagram Stories. If it isn't clear at this point, Meta owns both Instagram and WhatsApp, so the similarities aren't shocking. Plus, it's sort of Meta's MO to add in features users may or may not want as a ploy to keep them on the platform longer. "Whether you're sharing the everyday moments that make up your life or a big occasion, we hope these new features give you even more ways to bring those closest to you along and up to date on what's happening," the press release adds. The features began rolling out on Thursday and will continue rolling out over the next few months.
Gulf Today
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Gulf Today
Fear shadows many children in immigrant families
Jocelyn Gecker, Associated Press Denver: For the last two months of their life in the United States, José Alberto González and his family spent nearly all their time in their one-bedroom Denver apartment. They didn't speak to anyone except their roommates, another family from Venezuela. They consulted WhatsApp messages for warnings of immigration agents in the area before leaving for the rare landscaping job or to buy groceries. But most days at 7:20 a.m., González's wife took their children to school. The appeal of their children learning English in American schools, and the desire to make money, had compelled González and his wife to bring their 6- and 3-year-old on the monthslong journey to the United States. They arrived two years ago, planning to stay for a decade. But on Feb. 28, González and his family boarded a bus from Denver to El Paso, where they would walk across the border and start the long trip back to Venezuela. Even as immigrants in the US avoid going out in public, terrified of encountering immigration authorities, families across the country are mostly sending their children to school. That's not to say they feel safe. In some cases, families are telling their children's schools that they're leaving. Already, thousands of immigrants have notified federal authorities they plan to "self-deport," according to the Department of Homeland Security. President Donald Trump has encouraged more families to leave by stoking fears of imprisonment, ramping up government surveillance, and offering people $1,000 and transportation out of the country. And on Monday, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to strip legal protections from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants, potentially exposing them to deportation. Without Temporary Protective Status, even more families will weigh whether to leave the US, advocates say. Departures in significant numbers could spell trouble for schools, which receive funding based on how many students they enroll. "The amount of fear and uncertainty that is going through parents' heads, who could blame somebody for making a choice to leave?" said Andrea Rentería, principal of a Denver elementary school serving immigrant students. "I can tell them as a principal that I won't let anybody in this school. Nobody is taking your kid. But I can't say the same for them out in the workforce or driving somewhere." When Trump was elected in November after promising to deport immigrants and depicting Venezuelans, in particular, as gang members, González knew it was time to go. He was willing to accept the tradeoff of earning just $50 weekly in his home country, where public schools operate a few hours a day. "I don't want to be treated like a delinquent," González said in Spanish. "I'm from Venezuela and have tattoos. For him, that means I'm a criminal." It took González months to save up the more than $3,000 he needed to get his family to Venezuela on a series of buses and on foot. He and his wife didn't tell anyone of their plan except the single mom who shared their apartment, afraid to draw attention to themselves. Telling people they wanted to leave would signal they were living here illegally. They sent their children to their Denver school regularly until late February, when González's phone lit up with messages claiming immigration agents were planning raids inside schools. That week, they kept their son home. "Honestly, we were really scared for our boy," González said. "Because we didn't have legal status." In the months following Trump's inauguration, Denver Public School attendance suffered, according to district data. Attendance districtwide fell by 3% in February compared with the same period last year, with even steeper declines of up to 4.7% at schools primarily serving immigrant newcomer students. The deflated rates continued through March, with districtwide attendance down 1.7% and as much as 3.9% at some newcomer schools. Some parents told Denver school staff they had no plans to approach their children's campus after the Trump administration ended a policy that had limited immigration enforcement at schools. The Denver school district sued the government over that reversal, saying attendance dropped "noticeably" across all schools, "particularly those schools in areas with new-to-country families and where ICE raids have already occurred." A federal judge ruled in March the district failed to prove the new policy caused the attendance decline. Data obtained from 15 districts across eight additional states, including Texas, Alabama, Idaho and Massachusetts, showed a similar decline in school attendance after the inauguration for a few weeks. In most places, attendance rebounded sooner than in Denver. From 2022 to 2024, more than 40,000 Venezuelans and Colombian migrants received shelter or other assistance from Denver. Trump said during the campaign he would begin his mass deportation efforts nearby, in the suburb of Aurora, because of alleged Venezuelan gang activity. Nationwide, schools are still reporting immediate drops in daily attendance during weeks when there is immigration enforcement — or even rumors of ICE raids - in their communities, said Hedy Chang of the nonprofit Attendance Works, which helps schools address absenteeism. Dozens of districts didn't respond to requests for attendance data. Some said they feared drawing the attention of immigration enforcement. In late February, González and his wife withdrew their children from school and told administrators they were returning to Venezuela. He posted a goodbye message on a Facebook group for Denver volunteers he used to find work and other help. "Thank you for everything, friends," he posted. "Tomorrow I leave with God's favor." Immediately, half a dozen Venezuelan and Colombian women asked him for advice on getting back. "We plan to leave in May, if God allows," one woman posted in Spanish. In Denver, 3,323 students have withdrawn from school through mid-April - an increase of 686 compared with the same period last year. Denver school officials couldn't explain the uptick. At the 400-student Denver elementary school Andrea Rentería heads, at least two students have withdrawn since the inauguration because of immigration concerns. One is going back to Colombia and the other didn't say where they were headed. School officials in Massachusetts and Washington state have confirmed some students are withdrawing from school to return to El Salvador, Brazil and Mexico. Haitians are trying to go to Mexico or Canada. In Chelsea, Massachusetts, a 6,000-student district where nearly half the students are still learning English, a handful of families have recently withdrawn their children because of immigration concerns. One mother in March withdrew two young children from the district to return to El Salvador, according to district administrator Daniel Mojica. Her 19-year old daughter will stay behind, on her own, to finish school - a sign that these decisions are leading to more family separation. In Bellingham, Washington, two families withdrew their children after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in early April at a local roofing company, where agents arrested fathers of 16 children attending Bellingham schools. Both families returned to Mexico, family engagement specialist Isabel Meaker said. "There's a sense, not just with these families, that it's not worth it to fight. They know the end result," Meaker said. Countries with large populations living in the United States are seeing signs of more people wanting to return home. Applications for Brazilian passports from consulates in the U.S. increased 36% in March, compared to the previous year, according to data from the Brazilian Foreign Ministry. Birth registrations, the first step to getting a Brazilian passport for a US-born child, were up 76% in April compared to the previous year. Guatemala reports a 5% increase over last year for passports from its nationals living in the United States. Last month, Melvin Josué, his wife and another couple drove four hours from New Jersey to Boston to get Honduran passports for their American-born children. It's a step that's taken on urgency in case these families decide life in the United States is untenable. Melvin Josué worries about Trump's immigration policy and what might happen if he or his wife is detained, but lately he's more concerned with the difficulty of finding work. Demand for his drywall crew immediately stopped amid the economic uncertainty caused by tariffs. There's also more reluctance, he said, to hire workers here illegally.
