WhatsApp is working on a new feature for its iOS-based app that would allow users to stream Netflix video within the messaging app without leaving it.
Up until now, WhatsApp users could only watch videos from Facebook, Instagram or YouTube within the social messaging app. The app would direct users to the respective apps or a web browser if they tried opening a video from a video streaming app such as Amazon Prime Video or Netflix. But that is about to change as the Facebook-owned social messaging would soon enable users to watch videos from video streaming apps without ever leaving it.
The caveat is that this functionality is currently being developed only for Netflix, leaving Prime users and users of other video streaming services to watch videos shared with them on the messaging app the conventional way. This means that when the feature is ready for roll-out, Netflix users will be able to watch movie trailers and even episodes of a show shared with them on WhatsApp within its platform.
The caveat is that this functionality is currently being developed only for Netflix, leaving Prime users and users of other video streaming services to watch videos shared with them on the messaging app the conventional way. This means that when the feature is ready for roll-out, Netflix users will be able to watch movie trailers and even episodes of a show shared with them on WhatsApp within its platform.
The news comes as a courtesy of WABetaInfo, the blog that tracks developments in WhatsApp. As per the details shared by a blog site, when users share a compatible Netflix link, WhatsApp will show a large thumbnail from the video along with a play icon, which is similar to the way YouTube videos appear in the social messaging. Tapping on the play icon would start playing the video within the app.
This feature is currently being developed only for WhatsApp's iOS-based app, which means iPhone users will be the first ones to get their hands on it whenever it is released.
Separately, WhatsApp is also actively working on bringing a dark theme on iOS 13 powered devices. According to a separate report by the blogsite, the popular social messaging site is planning to implement a dark theme on iPhones in two different ways. In the first configuration, WhatsApp will use very dark colors for the table and cell background and in the second configuration, the company would use soft dark colors for table and cell background within the app. The report also states that a third configuration is also in works but the company is yet to implement it.
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