WhatsApp has supported voice messages for quite awhile. And for those who use it, you’ll be able to appreciate the ability to record what you want to say directly from the app rather than having to first record it elsewhere. The video equivalent has finally arrived for the Meta-owned messaging app letting you do the same in a more visual capacity, with some caveats.
As per the WhatsApp blog post announcing the feature, your video messages are limited to 60-second clips, And when you get one in a chat, they automatically play when you open up said chat, but without the sound. You will have to tap on the video to unmute it. On Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has a video demonstrating the feature which, with the exception of the countdown timer, looks to work just the same as recording a voice message.
Naturally, the major benefit of this feature is allowing you to record the video you want to send over directly from WhatsApp. Though some may find issue with the fact that the videos are circular, instead of the usual rectangles of various aspect ratios.
In the announcement blog post, the company says that it has started rolling out this feature, and it will be available to everyone in the coming weeks. that being the case, it is also worth noting that WhatsApp is plenty behind when it comes to rolling out this video message feature, especially when compared to rival service Telegram. The latter has had this since 2017, with the same toggling method as well.
(Source: WhatsApp, Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook, Telegram)
